The former Super Eagles star had a largely successful career that spanned over 12 years, but he still had some regrets
Former Bolton star, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha has rued missing out on the CAF African Player of the year award during his playing career. Okocha, known for his magic, trickery, and skills on the ball, was one of the greatest players of his generation.
The 46-year-old had an illustrious career which included spells at Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahce, Paris Saint Germain and Bolton Wanderers.
The magician was also a core member of the Super Eagles squad that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and also qualified for their first World Cup the same year.
However, despite his brilliance and talents, the former Super Eagles captain never had the honour of being named the best player in Africa.
Okocha was nominated three times (1998, 2003 and 2004), but his best-ever finish was second place in 1998 and 2004, while he ended up in third place in 2003. Failure to win the ultimate prize is something the former PSG star regrets, although he was proud of his career.
In a Master Card sponsored Q&A with popular on-air personality Toke Makinwa, Okocha was asked by a fan the biggest regret in his career.
“Well, I think I don’t want to sound greedy, but I’ve had an amazing career, I never thought I would make it that big,” Okocha said.
“But of course, if you look back, there’s always a time that 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.
However, Okocha believed he did enough to win the award, saying winning the BBC African player of the year three times shows that.
“I thought I did enough to have won it because it was not a fluke that I won BBC player of the year three years in a row and not manage to win that CAF award, but I mean maybe it was not meant to be, he added.