Many several years after quitting active football and delving into business, Nigerian soccer fans still find it difficult to accept that, former Super Eagles captain, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha won’t play for the national team again.
The call for Okocha’s return intensifies whenever the Eagles play international games with a flat midfield formation and whenever the former Bolton Wanderers of England captain dazzles at charity and testimonial games with his trademark scintillating skills. The latest call for Okocha’s return was made in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, last month during the Joseph Yobo Testimonial Match.
After the Yobo Testimonial, Okocha kept hearing the voices of Nigerian soccer fans who claimed they had been starved of sensational football artistry, asking him, to stage a return to the Nigerian Professional Football League to help give the league the desired glamour.
In a swift reaction to this call, ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, told Sunday Telegraph in an interview in Lagos that he had finished playing active football and nothing could bring him back no matter how attractive the offers might be, as he had paid his dues during his 20-year career playing for clubs across the world and the national teams of Nigeria where he played for the Flying Eagles and the Super Eagles in an international career that lasted for 18 years.
He added: “It will take a fortune to bring me back to football. For me now, that is impossible as there is time for everything. My time as a soccer star has ended and I have moved to the next level of my life. No matter how big the offer is, I won’t come back to active football. “I am 43 years old now and those calling for my return to football seem not to know my age and the fact that I retired many years ago.
If any club in Nigeria decides to buy a 43-year-old player, then they know what they should expect from such a player.”
Okocha, noted that: “The match in Port Harcourt where I performed excellently with some of my trademark dribbling skills was a testimonial game. That was why I could dazzle the way I did. Playing in the Nigerian league is a different ball game.
It is competitive at that level where your opponents don’t want to lose games. The tackles at league games won’t be friendly and it is possible I sustain serious injuries the type I never sustained in my entire career before my retirement. “I hope those who are calling for my return to active football do not wish I get killed on the pitch during real competitive games.
At my age, I can’t withstand vicious tackles from younger defenders the way I did at the peak of my career. Right now, I can’t leave everything I am doing to start training every day to get match fitness to play well. I have a lot I am doing now that I can’t leave for a minute to start playing football again.”
He added: “I left football for a reason when I still had the age to play a little more years more, but the truth is that, I left the game when the ovation was loudest and I don’t think coming back to football will help me health wise. I have paid my dues as a professional footballer, and fortunately for me it was well appreciated by all Nigerians and the clubs I played in during my career in Germany, France, Turkey and England. It is now left for the younger ones to give their best in the game.
“I am now committed to projects where ex-internationals and less privileged Nigerians would be given better life. Today, I am focused on doing great things for Nigerians through the ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha Foundation. I am from a very poor home, but football gave me a voice and I will use my voice to bring unity to our people.
As far as I am concerned, Nigerians are divided. I want to be an agent of unity. “The death of two former Super Eagles chief coaches, Stephen Keshi and Amodu Shaibu, within one week was a wake-up call. It could happen to anybody.
If I die today, I won’t be satisfied. I believe I am not doing enough to help my people as I have not touched enough lives. Today, I am the Delta State Football Association chairman, but this is not enough, that is why I want to give my time to the ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha Foundation.
With this Foundation, we are going to create jobs for my ex-international colleagues who are struggling to survive. It is better to teach people how to fish. We have projects with various state governments in the eastern parts of Nigeria where ex-internationals will be fully engaged.”
The Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha Foundation was unveiled in Lagos last week. The former Bolton Wanderers of England captain said, the Foundation was a dream come true as he knew within him that he had not done enough to give back to the country that made him the international figure he is today. “History will not forgive me if I don’t give back to the people as I believe I have not done enough for them.
To get the project going smoothly, we have partnered with I-Naira.com which is the official auctioneer for the ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha Foundation.
This is important in the aspect of raising raise funds for the Foundation. I will be selling my collections of football kits and memorabilia used during my entire career in the clubs and national teams. “I need the cooperation of Nigerians both home and abroad to make the Foundation a success as the platform may go beyond football,” Okocha said.
