Hayatou’s regret: Okocha deserved CAF awards

Confederation of African Football president, Issa
Hayatou was of the view that Nigerian football
legend, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha deserved to have
won the highest African football honour for all his
masterful displays during his playing days.
In 2003 and 2004 respectively when Okocha was at
his best, the African player of the year award
eluded him, much to the surprise of most Nigerian
soccer enthusiasts conversant with African football.
Instead, Samuel Eto’o was crowned back to back
for those years, with Didier Drogba as runner’s up,
while Okocha was third. Coincidentally, the former
Super Eagles midfield maestro was voted back to
back as the BBC African player of the year for the
same period. This led to conspiracy theories that
there was a Francophone gang-up against Okocha,
who is from Nigeria, an Anglophone country.
“If I have any regret that will be not winning The
African Footballer of the Year. But then, I don’t
think I was meant to because I gave my best, but
at the end, it wasn’t good enough,” said Okocha in
a recent interview.
At the 2014 CAF awards, Hayatou seemed to have
felt his pain as he described the awards
established in 1992 as a magnificent achievement
and deserving to be won by players who have
distinguished themselves on the field of play.
“Players like Jay Jay Okocha would have been very
worthy to feature in the list of winners. But the
technicians decided otherwise, it is the law of the
game,” Hayatou said in his opening remarks.
Okocha who was named by Pele in his list of 125
legends, started his career with the Super Eagles in
1993 in a game against Cote’d Ivoire during an
African World Cup qualifier. He cemented his place
in the Super Eagles in subsequent years and was
influential in the squad. His was part of the team
that won the African Cup of Nations for the second
time in 1994 and also gold medal at the Atlanta
96’ Olympic Games. However, he was unable to
inspire the team to qualify for the 2006 World Cup
in Germany, it was from that moment his weight
began to wane.
There hasn’t been another player like Okocha in
the continent. And perhaps this way why Yaya
Toure has been crowned four years in a row and
he seem bored receiving the awards at the Eko
Hotels Convention centre last Thursday night as he
did not show any emotion in the ceremony filled
with quality entertainment.
Nigeria Football Federation president, Mr. Amaju
Pinnick congratulated Toure with no hard feelings,
but was quick to add that Nigerian players need to
raise their game and also take their places in the
CAF hall of fame.
“No one can fault the awards given to Toure. He
deserves it; my only concern is that Toure is
playing for the wrong premiership team.
“But seriously, this is a wake up call for our
players. It was only Vincent Enyeama that we have
seen this season and for him to make the final list
was a plus for him being a goalkeeper,” Amaju
said.
It was a thrilling evening, the music was good.
Food and wine were in abundant supply and the
gathered football family had their fill after three
long hours of waiting for the show to begin.
The event was meant to celebrate football and the
stars past and present who made the difference.
Kalusha Bwalya was the only former African
international who was invited to make
presentations.