Former Cameroon left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto has made a stunning revelation about how he was rejected by a Serie A club for his hair during a playing career which spanned over a decade.
Assou-Ekotto, who is known by his afro hairstyle, revealed that he was close to starting a new adventure in Italy after spells at Tottenham Hotspurs, Queens Park Rangers and Lens, but the move fell through because of his look.
He added that the snub had left him with questions about his career that saw him play 155 Premier League games and 117 Ligue 1 matches.
“I talked to an Italian club, a stupid Italian club,” Assou-Ekotto said. “They told me ‘we like you, but it would be difficult for us to explain to the fans that we are buying a player with hair like yours’.
“Really curious about how my career would have gone if I hadn’t always had extravagant hair.
“Maybe some clubs don’t want to buy a footballer who says he plays for money. But then everyone is in football for the money, the club owners want to make money.”
The France-born star opted to play for Cameroon on the international scene and he made 24 appearances for the Indomitable Lions before calling time on his international career after the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.
The 37-year-old spent the majority of his career in the Premier League with Spurs (2006-2015) and had a loan stint at Queens Park Rangers.
And in 2015, he returned to his country of birth where he played for Saint-Etienne and Metz in Ligue 1 before hanging up his boots three years later.
