Nigeria has made in the ‘ 90s, a development, but it failed to shape a Golden Era. Before the Africa Cup of Jay-Jay Okocha speaks in a DW Interview about his great times as Active and the current Team.
DW: Nigeria was appointed after winning the gold medal at the summer Olympic games in Atlanta in 1996 to the “Dream Team”. But what has happened to this great success?
Jay-Jay Okocha: no one had expected that we can show a good performance. Our preparation wasn’t optimal. But we players have to back closely together and to look at how we can as far as possible to come. And then we won, fortunately, even the tournament, and were, and are, something of a hero in Nigeria. We are treated ever since as President. We have the greatest reception, you can imagine. Thereafter, the pressure on the next Generation to repeat this success lay. But they failed.
The “Super eagles” missed the last two Africa Cup of Nations took part, are well qualified but again. There are very many highs and lows. Why did the Nigerian football never to the level that had of your Generation?
Watch the Video 09:32 Share
Trumps Nigeria at the Africa Cup large?
Facebook Twitter google+ send Tumblr VZ Xing Newsvine Digg
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3KlVw
Trumps Nigeria at the Africa Cup large?
I believe that we need to change our mentality a little bit. We have believed that our Talent is enough to get back. But our Talent is not large enough to give us such successes, to return to a world power in football. We did it only sporadically, to be successful. There was no continuity. And for me also a failure of planning. If you do not think of the future and these plans will fail. You need to invest in order to be in the football successfully in the long term. The Talent can bring you up to a certain Level. But in the end you will not suffer from the fact that it has all the things to go the way to the very end.
You have played abroad for several years. They were in Germany, Turkey and England. How would you compare the football infrastructure in Overseas in Nigeria?
After I had the opportunity to play for a long time in Europe, I had expected that we imitate what is done in this part of the world. You can’t play good football without a good training course. We need an infrastructure. We also need to establish a good youth work and Finance. And this is not happening in Nigeria, unfortunately. I can call Germany as a good example. There is over a billion Euro has been invested in youth work. How are we supposed to compare ourselves to? Football means money, we all know, there’s no doubt about it. But the local officials are not interested in making a larger investment in the football. That’s why I came back home, and would like to change things. I have invested in football fields and would like to encourage other people to do the same.
Okocha is expected that Nigeria gets the title: Nigerian attacker Ahmed Musa takes the Ball
Even though Nigeria has invested billions in the youth system, played for the national team at the world Cup in Russia better than many would have expected …
Good for us is that we have many players abroad. This is the reason why we have good benefits, can show with the national team. We do not rely on the players that are here locally. When you think of the League games in this country, then we have to go a long way to go to. One of the problems is that most of the clubs are government owned, and their Budgets are simply not sufficient to conduct a competitive League. The result is that talented players go abroad to learn the technical fundamentals – and, in many cases, a successful Level. All of these experiences from the different leagues are here brought together and the players are then able to help the national team.
Alex Iwobi of Arsenal FC is one of those players who gain experience abroad, and hope that the Super Eagles at the Africa Cup in Egypt successfully. He is also your nephew …
Alex Iwobi lead from Arsenal FC’s sol 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 player himself. But he has earned what he has earned. With regard to the Africa Cup, I think we can go far. We have developed in the past few years. There is now a degree of stability. Coach Gernot Rohr knows his Team well, he is since 2016 in the office. He knows the expectations are high, and that it will not be easy. Preparation is the key, and then the mindset has to be in front of such a tournament is clear: It is important for the players, that they believe that they can win the tournament. This is what awaits Nigeria from them. And this also applies to me: I expect that Nigeria will triumph in the end.
The Interview was conducted by Kres Harrington
Augustine Azuka “Jay-Jay” Okocha was born on 14. August, born in 1973, was a Nigerian professional football player. Okocha was an attacking midfielder or striker. He was very well known for his good technique, his dribbling, his creativity. Okocha is the best Nigerian and one of the best African footballers of all time. He has played 73 international matches for Nigeria. Okocha won at the 1996 summer Olympic Gold in 1994, playing the Africa Cup with his country. Okocha played in his 18 years as a professional, among other things in Frankfurt, Paris and Fenerbahce Istanbul.