Efan Ekoku - Playing Career

Playing Career

During his club career, he played for Merton FC, Sutton United, Bournemouth, Norwich City, Wimbledon, Grasshopper, Sheffield Wednesday and Dublin City.

He began his professional career in 1990 when he signed for Harry Redknapp's Bournemouth, who had just been relegated to the Third Division. His start in the Football League was unspectacular, as he managed just 20 games and three goals during the 1990–91 season for a Cherries side who finished mid table. He did better in 1991–92, scoring 11 goals in 28 league games. He managed seven goals from 14 games in 1992–93 before a £500,000 move to Norwich City on 26 March 1993 took him to the Premier League.

He arrived at Carrow Road when Norwich were in the thick of the title race under the management of Mike Walker. Ekoku scored three goals in ten games in what was left of that exciting campaign, and although Norwich were beaten to the title by Manchester United, Ekoku and his teammates had achieved a third place finish and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

He scored Norwich's first ever goal in European competition, against Vitesse in the UEFA Cup on 15 September 1993. Just 10 days later he scored four goals as Norwich beat Everton 5–1 at Goodison Park, becoming the first player to score more than three goals in a Premier League game. He managed a total of 27 league games that season, scoring on 12 occasions.

He remained at Carrow Road until 14 October 1994, when a £900,000 fee took him to Wimbledon to replace John Fashanu as strike partner to Dean Holdsworth. He was the club's top scorer in the league that season with nine goals as they finished ninth in the league and maintained their reputation as one of the hardest Premier League teams to beat, although they struggled to score many goals and rarely hit more than two in a match that campaign.

He managed seven goals in the 1995–96 season and had a particularly exciting campaign in 1996–97, when Wimbledon finished eighth and were semi-finalists in both of the domestic cups. He was also their top scorer with 11 league goals.

However, his first team chances were restricted over the next two seasons, before he moved to Switzerland in a £500,000 move to Grasshoppers Zurich on 27 August 1999. He had first requested to leave the club a year earlier, when he had declared his interest in joining a bigger Premier League club, and was subject of interest from the likes of Everton, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Southampton, with fees as high as £4million being quoted.

His first season in Switzerland was very successful, as he scored 16 goals in 21 games, although he failed to pick up any silverware. He played a further seven games and scored three goals before returning to England on a free transfer to Sheffield Wednesday on 20 October 2000.

He arrived at Hillsborough just months after the Owls had been relegated from the Premier League and were battling against a second successive relegation. His seven goals from 32 Division One games helped secure survival by some margin as the Owls finished 17th, and they narrowly avoided the drop once again the following year, with Ekoku playing his part by scoring a further seven league goals. However, he did not feature in the disastrous 2002–03 campaign, where the Owls were relegated to Division Two. Having been out of the first team picture for a whole year, he was given a free transfer and signed for Division Two strugglers Brentford in March 2003, but left after eight months without playing a single first team game and finished his career in Ireland with Dublin City before finally retiring in 2004.

In 2012, Ekoku was inducted into the Norwich City Hall of Fame.