How Sunderland defender played an 'important' role in Pierre Ekwah move

Pierre Ekwah says he chose Sunderland after 'positive' reports from former West Ham academy teammate Aji Alese.

Sunderland defender Aji Alese played an ‘important’ role in bringing Pierre Ekwah to the north east, the Frenchman has revealed.

Alese and Ekwah played together for the West Ham under-21 team last year. Last summer Alese decided to come to Sunderland to try to transition into first team football and has since become an important part of the squad.

Ekwah was getting similarly frustrated at a lack of opportunities at West Ham, and he has explained how Alese was able to sell the club to him and help him make up his mind that Sunderland was where he wanted to be.

“It was part of my move that I have seen so many young players do well,” Ekwah explained.

“I had Aji Alese on the phone as well because I played with him last season and he really talked well about Sunderland, so that was definitely important to why I'm here.

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“All the time he was saying positive things, which was nice to hear actually. Even before anything happened, even before any [transfer] talks he always said nice things about the club.

“So when he heard that things were maybe moving forward for me to come here, he was obviously really pushing the positives. But yes, he had a very positive effect on me coming here.”

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