{"id":26412,"date":"2025-12-04T10:16:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=26412"},"modified":"2025-12-04T10:16:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:16:43","slug":"claim-william-troost-ekong-has-retired-from-international-football-unfounded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/claim-william-troost-ekong-has-retired-from-international-football-unfounded\/","title":{"rendered":"Claim William Troost-Ekong has retired from international football, unfounded"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: <\/strong>An X user claims<\/a> that Super Eagles captain Troost-Ekong has retired from international football.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: False. Our research shows that no credible media outlet has reported the alleged development, nor has Troost-Ekong or the NFF announced that the captain has retired from international football.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Nigerian national football team was defeated by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo DR) in their quest for a spot at the 2026 World Cup. However, the Super Eagles will travel to Cairo on Dec. 10, 2025, for an international friendly with the Pharaohs of Egypt, ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament, which is scheduled to commence in Morocco on Dec. 23, 2025.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An X user, @drpeking<\/a>, claims that the Super Eagles captain, Williams Troost-Ekong, has retired from international football and will no longer represent Nigeria in international matches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBREAKING NEWS: Troost Ekong throws in the towel from international football,\u201d The X user wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found similar claims shared here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, the post had garnered over 113,000 views, 55 comments, 295 retweets, 4,100 likes, and 34 bookmarks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some X users dismissed the claim as false, others thought the 32-year-old\u2019s alleged decision was too early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis news would come directly from Ekong himself, not anyone else,\u201d @Itata_9<\/a> stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere did you get this piece of information from?\u201d @iAMPODii<\/a> queried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe should\u2019ve waited until after the AFCON\u2026\u201d @TalmudicSage<\/a> expressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLegend, much appreciated,\u201d @ladondo247<\/a> commended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the contrasting views expressed by X users, who either believed or questioned the authenticity of the post, DUBAWA decided to verify the claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA checked if any credible news outlet had reported the alleged development. We found no media reports on the captain\u2019s alleged retirement from international football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We checked Troost-Ekong\u2019s social media handles on X, Facebook, and Instagram and found no official announcement about his alleged retirement from international football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA noticed that in his X and Facebook bio, Troost-Ekong still identifies as \u201cNigeria\u2019s Super Eagles captain.\u201d On Instagram, his bio indicates that he is still actively involved with Nigeria\u2019s national football team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also checked the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)<\/a> website and noticed that it did not publish any information related to the X user\u2019s claim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the recently released<\/a> AFCON preliminary squad, the Super Eagles coach, Eric, included Troost-Ekong as one of the team\u2019s defenders.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA\u2019s findings show that no credible news outlet has published any information on the X user\u2019s claim. Also, neither Troost-Ekong nor the NFF has made an official statement about the alleged development. The claim is, therefore, false. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: An X user claims that Super Eagles captain Troost-Ekong has retired from international football. Verdict: False. Our research shows that no credible media outlet has reported the alleged development, nor has Troost-Ekong or the NFF announced that the captain has retired from international football. Full Text The Nigerian national football team was defeated by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo DR) in their quest for a spot at the 2026 World Cup. However, the Super Eagles will travel to Cairo on Dec. 10, 2025, for an international friendly with the Pharaohs of Egypt, ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament, which is scheduled to commence in Morocco on Dec. 23, 2025.           An X user, @drpeking, claims that the Super Eagles captain, Williams Troost-Ekong, has retired from international football and will no longer represent Nigeria in international matches.  \u201cBREAKING NEWS: Troost Ekong throws in the towel from international football,\u201d The X user wrote. We found similar claims shared here, here, here, here, and here.       As of Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, the post had garnered over 113,000 views, 55 comments, 295 retweets, 4,100 likes, and 34 bookmarks.  While some X users dismissed the claim as false, others thought the 32-year-old\u2019s alleged decision was too early. \u201cThis news would come directly from Ekong himself, not anyone else,\u201d @Itata_9 stated. \u201cWhere did you get this piece of information from?\u201d @iAMPODii queried. \u201cHe should\u2019ve waited until after the AFCON\u2026\u201d @TalmudicSage expressed. \u201cLegend, much appreciated,\u201d @ladondo247 commended. Due to the contrasting views expressed by X users, who either believed or questioned the authenticity of the post, DUBAWA decided to verify the claim. Verification DUBAWA checked if any credible news outlet had reported the alleged development. We found no media reports on the captain\u2019s alleged retirement from international football. We checked Troost-Ekong\u2019s social media handles on X, Facebook, and Instagram and found no official announcement about his alleged retirement from international football. DUBAWA noticed that in his X and Facebook bio, Troost-Ekong still identifies as \u201cNigeria\u2019s Super Eagles captain.\u201d On Instagram, his bio indicates that he is still actively involved with Nigeria\u2019s national football team. We also checked the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) website and noticed that it did not publish any information related to the X user\u2019s claim.  In the recently released AFCON preliminary squad, the Super Eagles coach, Eric, included Troost-Ekong as one of the team\u2019s defenders.   Conclusion DUBAWA\u2019s findings show that no credible news outlet has published any information on the X user\u2019s claim. Also, neither Troost-Ekong nor the NFF has made an official statement about the alleged development. The claim is, therefore, false. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,437,3812,3815,3704],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3699],"class_list":["post-26412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-facebook-checks","category-headline","category-homepage","category-sport"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-6S0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3699,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"cole-praise","display_name":"Cole Praise","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7934b84f51e2c1f4c1e77cce93c223ac97cc2da29198aa9141fd944b0407bb2d?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-7.png?fit=316%2C318&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26414,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412\/revisions\/26414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26412"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=26412"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=26412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}