Jay-Jay Okocha: "I expect Nigeria to triumph" | Sports | '
‘: Nigeria was named a "dream team" in 1996 after winning the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. But what happened after this great success?
Jay-Jay Okocha: Nobody expected us to do such a good job. Our preparation was not exactly optimal. But we players have decided to stick together and see how we can get as far as possible. Fortunately, we even won the tournament and have been and are heroes in Nigeria. We are treated like presidents ever since. We got the biggest reception imaginable. After that, the pressure was on the next generation to repeat this success. But they failed.
The "Super Eagles" missed two African Cup appearances recently, but are now qualified again. There are many highs and lows. Why has Nigerian football never reached the level that your generation had?
I think we have to change our mentality a bit. We only believed that our talent alone was enough to get back there. But our talent is not big enough to bring us such success to be a world power in football again. We have only occasionally managed to be successful. There was no continuity. And for me there is also a bad planning. If you do not think about the future and plan it, you will fail. You have to invest to be successful in football in the long term. The talent can take you to a certain level. But in the end you will suffer because you do not have all the things to go all the way.
You have played abroad for several years. They were in Germany, Turkey and England. How would you compare overseas football infrastructure with that of Nigeria?
Having had the opportunity to play in Europe for a long time, I had expected to imitate what is being done in this part of the world. You can not play good football without a good training ground. We need an infrastructure. We also need to establish and finance good youth work. And unfortunately that did not happen in Nigeria. I can call Germany a good example. There, more than a billion euros were invested in youth work. How should we compare ourselves to it? Football means money, we all know that, there is no doubt about that. But local officials are not interested in making bigger investments in football. That's why I came home and want to change things. I have invested in football pitches and I want to encourage other people to do the same.
Okocha expects Nigeria to take the title, with Nigeria striker Ahmed Musa leading the ball
Although Nigeria has not invested billions in the youth system, the national team played better at the World Cup in Russia than many would have expected …
Good thing for us is that we have many players abroad. That's why we can show good performances with the national team. We do not rely on the players who are here. If you think about the league games in this country, then we still have a long way to go. One of the problems is that most clubs belong to the government and their budgets are simply not enough to lead a competitive league. As a result, talented players go abroad to learn the basics of technology – and in many cases reach a successful level. All this experience from the different leagues is brought together here and the players are then able to help the national team.
Arsenal FC's Alex Iwobi is one of those players with experience abroad, hoping the Super Eagles will be successful at the Africa Cup in Egypt. He is also your nephew …
Arsenal's Alex Iwobi will lead Nigeria to the title
He is like a son to me. I am very proud of his development. Yes, it can help if you have an uncle who was a footballer himself. But he deserves everything he has worked for. As for the Africa Cup, I think we can go a long way. We have developed in recent years. There is now a degree of stability. Coach Gernot Rohr knows his team well, he has been in office since 2016. He knows that expectations are high and that it will not be easy. Preparation is the key and then the mindset before such a tournament has to be clear: it is important for the players to believe that they can win the tournament. That is also what Nigeria expects from them. And that concerns me as well: I expect Nigeria to triumph in the end.
The interview was conducted by Kres Harrington
Augustine Azuka "Jay-Jay" Okocha was born on 14 August 1973 and was a Nigerian professional footballer. Okocha was an attacking midfielder or striker. He was known for his good technique, his dribbling, his creativity. Okocha is considered the best Nigerian and one of the best African footballers of all time. He has played 73 caps for Nigeria. Okocha won gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 1994 Africa Cup with his country. Okocha played in his 18 years as a professional, among others, in Frankfurt, Paris and Fenerbahce Istanbul.
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