Following my original article singing Benny's praises as a footballer and all round good egg, he continues to impress me no end. Assou Ekotto is a complete breath of fresh air in today's game. This week it was revealed that he was very much under the weather,
and was originally left out of the squad against Wigan last weekend. The
night before, Redknapp called him up and said, "Look Benny, I could
really do with you in the game tomorrow." Instead of lying up in bed
with his bug, Benny jumped in a cab up to Wigan and was there for the
game, ready and raring to go, where he put in his usual brilliant shift.
Food for thought for the Tevez's of this world.This week he's also been "rewarding inspirational teenagers" where more than 70 young people received their Educational Achievement Awards from the man himself at a special ceremony at White Hart Lane as part of a joint initiative between Haringey Council and the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.
From the official site: Benoit said, "It was an honour for me to present these Awards. I understand the difficulties the young people have had in their lives, which makes their achievements in school even more impressive. I think it is important that the Club continues to work with these young people to give them the best possible chance of success in the future."
As well as giving back to the community,
yet more insight from the life of Benny this week came in the shape of an interview with the London Evening Standard. When asked about what it's like to work with Gareth Bale, Benny answered tongue in cheek that, "You need to ask him what's it's like to play in front of me because I always give him the ball and when I am one against one he is not there to help me." After much giggling, he goes on to say "No but it's true! I try to give him the best conditions and then we can see the best of him. But he's never said thank you . . . not yet, anyway!" Tongue in cheek, but he's right. Bale wouldn't have had the game he had against Inter Milan last year, or have set Europe alight with some of his other displays without Assou-Ekotto holding the fort behind him and pinging him all the perfectly placed passes he could ever want.The ES article is well worth a read here, (as is my original article of appreciation for Benny here) and the never bullshitting legend that is Benoit Assou-Ekotto ends the interview with this gem on wether he'd rather play for Arsenal or Spurs:
"What's amazing now is if you were to look at the individual names in both squads, I doubt very much a Tottenham player would look at the list and think he would much rather join Arsenal. So that says it all. You know for me, at the moment, I wouldn't say yeah I'd like to go to Arsenal because I would prefer to play with Modric than Arteta." Right on the money.
Why do we not have a song for this man yet?!
More Benny love? Part Three here: The Official "Get @AssouEkotto a Song" Campaign #BAEsong
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