Austin Okocha and Ghana’s Anthony Yeboah were team mates at Bundesliga side, Eintracht Franfurt in 1993. Black Stars were in Germany for a friendly with the German Machine. The friends made a bet. If Germany won, the Nigerian would get 2,000 United States dollars. Victory for the visitors would make him poorer by the same amount.
The Black Stars were given a 6-1 drubbing in that April 1993 game. Yeboah believed so much in his country and was doing well in Germany where he knew most of the players. There were two other Ghanaians playing in the Bundesliga: Tony Baffoe and Ali Ibrahim. That gave the West Africans enough confidence to get a good result.
Okocha had lost 1,000 dollars to Yeboah early in 1993 when the Ghanaian Under-20 team defeated Nigeria 1-0 at the Africa Youth Championships in Mauritius. Led by coach James Peters, the Flying Eagles were a sorry bunch. They had earlier lost to Cameroon. So bowing to the Satellites meant elimination. That was a team that had Nwankwo Kanu on the bench all through.
Okocha opened up to me at the Gateway Hotel Otta. “Yeboah and I made a bet and I won. Ghana lost woefully so he paid me 2,000 dollars. He had picked 1,000 dollars off me when Ghana beat us in Mauritius”, he said.
It was in late April 1993 and Jay Jay was preparing to make his Eagles’ debut against Cote D’Ivoire in a USA ’94 World Cup qualifier. He told me he felt better playing as a senior because of their experience which the Flying Eagles lacked.
On May 2, 1993, Clemens Westerhof offered Okocha a first cap in Abidjan. Nigeria went ahead in the fifth minute through Rashidi Yekini and would have finished the game if Samson Siasia had gifted the gangling striker a sitter for the second goal. Unfortunately it did not happen and the Elephants powered back to win 2-1. Jay Jay was pulled out for Thompson Oliha. Nigerian fans descended on Westerhof for that change.
The Dutchman fought back. “Wait a minute, let me give you the answer. Those people have no knowledge of football. Hey, a small child could even see that Okocha was finished during the match and was happy that I changed him. He even came to me and said he was empty.”
Jay Jay did redeem himself. In the next group game against Algeria in Lagos, the visitors were a goal up in the fifth minute and the stadium was in dead silence. Then there was a free kick from outside the box. No 12. shirt, Okocha, stepped out. It was a spectacular effort that cancelled Abdelhafid Tasfout’s goal. The crowd roared back to life.
Nigeria demolished the Algerians 4-1 with Yekini scoring a brace. At the end, Desert Foxes coach, Meziane Ighil, confessed that Okocha was more dangerous than the two-goal hero. Jay Jay did not last the distance, he gave way to Friday Ekpo. In the return leg against Cohttps://www.nextedition.com.ng/sports-flakes-kanus-africa-nations-cup-regrette D’Ivoire which Nigeria won 4-1, Emmanuel Amuneke was introduced for the Eintracht Frankfurt star.
READ ALSO: Court Orders Arrest of Jay Jay Okocha
Yeboah was not surprised that Okocha broke into the Eagles first team. The Ghanaian was at the Senegal ’92 Nations Cup with Baffoe and Ibrahim. The Black Stars defeated Super Eagles 2-1 in the semi finals. When Jay Jay arrived Frankfurt later in the year from Borussia Nuenkirchen, he wondered what would have happened if the midfield dynamo made the Nigerian team to Senegal.
Okocha eventually took part in the Nations Cup and won gold at Tunisia ’94. He debuted with the Eagles at USA ’94 and won Olympic gold with the Dream Team at Atlanta ’96. Jay Jay also played at the France ’98 World Cup before captaining Nigeria to the Korea/Japan 2002 Mundial. He thus became the first Nigerian to play in three World Cup championships.
Westerhof would alter praise him when he scored in a 1993 warm up game with Gothenburg in Sweden. The Eagles won 5-1. That was the first time Okocha would play together with his elder brother Emma for the Eagles. Emma had won silver at Algiers ’90. Their nephew, Alex Iwobi, bagged bronze at the Egypt 2019 Africa Nations Cup.
Okocha moved to Fernabahce, Turkey after his first World Cup and took the name Huhammed Yavuz. Team mate, Okey Uche, became Abdulkerim Rahim. At the end of France 98, he joined Paris St. Germain. When President Olusegun Obasanjo visited France in 1999, the Mayor of Paris gave him Okocha’s jersey number 10.
A move to England came in 2002. He berthed at Bolton helping them to remain in the top flight with a goal in the last game of the 2002/2003 season. Okocha became ‘Bolton Talisman’. They turned him to ‘Okocha cha cha cha’. In 2003 Manager Sam Alladyce gave him the captain’s band. At the end of the 2004/2005 season, the Toffees finished fifth on the English Premier League table to go international. European champions, Liverpool, were sixth.
Named BBC African Footballer of the Year twice[2003,2004], he was voted Most Valuable Player of the Tunisia ’94 Africa Nations Cup. Okocha got a souvenir from CAF for scoring goal number 1,000. Unfortunately, he was unable to be voted African Footballer of the Year by CAF.
Jay Jay was largely unknown in Nigeria where he played for Cooperative and Commerce Bank [CCB] and Nigeria Airways, Enugu before joining Rangers in 1990. Some of the players who moved to Rangers in 1990 were Chukwuma Nwoha, Charles Nduka, Onochie Alumona, Monday Osagie, Andy Okpufie, Akeem Ashiru and keepers Victor Oko and Fancy Maduka.
Austin Azuka Okocha was born in Enugu but hails from Ihekpe Quarters, Ogwashi Ukwu in Delta State. He is married to Nkechi from Arochukwu in Abia State.