Benoit back to face AC Milan Glorie!

Benoit Assou-Ekotto will pull on a Spurs shirt for the first time in over 10 years after joining our Legends squad to take on AC Milan Glorie at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 23 March (2pm).

A cult figure in his time at the club, the flying full-back made 204 appearances for us in all competitions between 2006-2015, scoring four times. He was a key member of the team that took us into the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 2010 and then started every game on our memorable run to the competition’s quarter-finals in 2010/11.

Benoit joins Sebastien Bassong, Dimitar Berbatov, Stephen Carr, Michael Dawson, Jermain Defoe, David Ginola, Heurelho Gomes, Ledley King, Aaron Lennon, Sandro, Teddy Sheringham, Teemu Tainio and Michel Vorm in the squad for the charity match in aid of the Club’s Foundation.

Legacy Number #714, Benoit joined us aged 22 from RC Lens in June, 2006. He played 25 times in his first season under Martin Jol but was then laid low by a serious injury that restricted him to just two appearances in 2007/08, forcing him to miss our League Cup victory that season.

Harry Redknapp’s arrival in October, 2008 marked a turning point for Benoit. He started 29 Premier League games in Harry’s first season in charge, 2008/09, and then made another 29 starts as we finished fourth in the league in 2009/10 to qualify for the Champions League. Benoit gave an indication of what was to come that season when he hit a thunderbolt on our opening weekend win against Liverpool at the Lane.

All the time, Benoit was developing a partnership with Gareth Bale down our left that would flourish in the next two seasons. He started every game of our run to the UCL quarter-finals and another 30 in the league as we finished fifth in 2010/11, and started 34 times as we finished fourth again in 2011/12. In that spell, 2009-2012, Benoit started 93 of 114 available Premier League matches we finished fourth, fifth and fourth.

Benoit played under Harry again on loan at QPR in 2013/14 before moving to Saint Etienne in February, 2015. Capped 23 times by Cameroon, including a World Cup appearance in South Africa in 2010 alongside Spurs team-mate Sebastien Bassong - the pair reunited for this match - Benoit ended his career at Metz in Ligue 1 in 2018.