Former Super Eagles captain and midfield maestro continues to air his regrets at not winning the CAF Player of the Year Award at the peak of his career.
Okocha undoubtedly is one of Africa’s most talented players and he is world famous for his artistic displays, but he never put his hands on the CAF Player of the Year award, like compatriots Nwankwo Kanu and Victor Ikpeba who were his contemporaries during his playing time.
Okocha was nominated three times; first in 1998, but he controversially lost to Morocco’s Mustapha Hadji in a year he was voted the BBC African player of the year. He was third behind Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba in 2003 and also third behind Drogba and Eto’o in 2004.
“I thought I did enough to have won it (the CAF Player of the Year), but at the end of the day, I have to take it on the chin and say maybe that’s life,” Okocha told Omasports.
“You can’t have it all, maybe it wasn’t meant to be. But I believe I deserved in at least one occasion to have won it. Because if you look at that list and look at some of the people that won it during my time, I agree that it was unfair.”
Okocha had a remarkable career, playing for clubs like Bolton, Eintracht Frankfurt, PSG, and Fenerbahce. He was very impressive at these clubs. Okocha was so good that even former Real Madrid and Arsenal star Mesut Ozil says he was his childhood idol.
