Former Super Eagles captain, Austin Okocha, has expressed his belief that it was unjust for him not to have won at least one CAF African Player of the Year Award, despite his impressive performances during his prime.
Regarded as one of the most skilful footballers to have graced the game, Okocha played for Nigeria from 1993 to 2006 and was instrumental in the country’s victorious 1994 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) campaign, as well as its World Cup team. He scored 15 goals in 75 appearances for the national team.
Okocha’s club career took him across Europe and the Middle East, where he played for Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahçe, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bolton Wanderers, among other clubs, before retiring in 2012.
Throughout his illustrious career, Okocha earned various individual accolades but was notably overshadowed in the race for the African Player of the Year Award, even at the height of his career.
“I mean, at some point, I thought I did enough to have won it. But at the end of the day, I have to accept that maybe that’s life—you can’t have it all,” Okocha told Oma Sports TV. “Maybe it wasn’t meant to be, but of course, I believed that at least once, I deserved to win it. If you look at some of the players who won it during my time, then I think you’d agree it was unfair.”
In 1998, Okocha finished as runner-up to Morocco’s Mustapha Hadji, marking his closest bid for the prestigious award. Four years later, he placed third behind Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba, a position he repeated in 2004, despite being named the best player at that year’s AFCON in Tunisia.
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Although the coveted award eluded him, Okocha takes pride in the legacy he built, stating, “For me, the most important thing is to be remembered for who you are. I may not have won many trophies, but I won hearts—and that’s golden. I don’t compare myself to anyone because I know where my career started and what I achieved. I truly appreciate everything football has done for me.”
