Ekoku began his career at
Sutton Utd, but made the move into
league football in the summer of 1990 when he signed for
AFC 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 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 Arnhem in the
UEFA Cup on 15 September 1993, and famously helped them eliminate German club
Bayern Munich in the next round. Just ten 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 12 goals in the league (and 14 times in all competitions), although a slump in league form after manager
Mike Walker departed to Everton in January saw the Canaries finish 12th in the league that season. He remained at Carrow Road until 14 October 1994, when a £1 million fee took him to Wimbledon to replace long-serving
John Fashanu as strike partner to
Dean Holdsworth. Ekoku had played six times for the Canaries in
1994–95, but didn't score a goal and was faced with competition for a regular place in the
Carrow Road attack from new signing
Mike Sheron. He was the club's top scorer in the league that season with nine goals as they finished ninth in the league. 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, and after nearly a year on the transfer list - and a number of clubs expressing interest in signing him - he moved to Switzerland in a £500,000 move to
Grasshoppers 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 £4 million being quoted. but failed to win a call into the squad before his release at the end of the season. He 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. ==Media career==