Nigeria’s Super Eagles Legend, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, expresses disappointment at not winning the CAF Player of the Year Award
The legendary Super Eagles midfielder, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha, has expressed extreme disappointment at not grabbing the Confederation of African Football’s Player of the Year award while he was in peak form during his career.
Okocha disclosed this during a session with MasterCard’s sponsored Q&A. He stated that he never expected to make it that far in his playing career, and winning the BBC Player of the Year was good compensation.
He said, “Honestly, I do not want to sound greedy and ungrateful, but I’ve had an amazing career; I never thought I would make it that big in my life.
“But of course, if you look back, there’s always a time when you say, ‘Oh, maybe you could’ve done a bit better than you did.’ And if I’m to say, I’ll say, I regret not winning the African Footballer of the Year.”
He further added, “I thought I did enough to have won it because it wasn’t a fluke that I won BBC Player of the Year three years in a row and still didn’t manage to win that CAF award. But, I mean, maybe it was not meant to be.”
The midfield maestro was part of Nigeria’s dream team that won the 1994 AFCON and also clinched the gold medal in the 1996 Olympics men’s football event.
During the CAF awards in 1998, Okocha came behind Moroccan legend Mustapha Hadji in 1998 and Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto’o in 2004.
He won the BBC Player of the Year back-to-back (2003 and 2004) per BBC.
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