Daily Independent
(Lagos)
Dan Amor
6 October 2008
column
Nigeria as a football - loving nation has had a fair share of soccer wizards: Sam Garba Okoye, Haruna Ilerika, Segun Odegbemi, Henry Nwosu, Uwem Ekarika, Sam Okwaraji, Etim Esim, Dan "The Bull" Amokachi, etcetera.
They were all delights to watch. But in terms of full expression on the pitch, it won't be out of place to assert here that soccer effects flow much more freely from the fecund imagination of Austin J.J Okocha, the Nigerian international and Captain of the Nigerian national team, the Super Eagles, who retired recently from active football after several years of impressive performance. In fact, soccer artistry, exhibited with dazzling virtuosity used to be the preserve of the brilliant Brazilians. But with the emergence of Okocha and a few others on the global soccer scene, Africa (nay Nigeria) joined the "Sambra train", bringing on board a style that has ruled the world for two decades in terms of appeal. Jay Jay led this "aesthetic" revival. His approach is methodical, his delivery masterly.
He caresses the ball with effortless ease and leaves you wondering whether he has a spiritual pact with the round leather object. He takes on opponents with confounding confidence, reducing most of them to sleepwalkers on the pitch. Love him or hate him, he remains evergreen in our collective consciousness; his abundant skills, his resourcefulness and amazing showmanship are a beauty on the pitch. That is Jay Jay Okocha, Nigeria's answer to the "ballet dancers" from Brazil. How generous can nature be, giving one young man in abundance such priceless assets which most athletes pray for just a sprinkling. In football, Okocha seems nature's agent for the expression of its former beauty. His is the complete world of imaginative soccer, and he has a gift for the unusual. Almost two decades into professional football, Okocha, even up until his last valedictory game in Warri, is still the apprentice alchemist striving to turn base metal into gold with spontaneous experiment that can change the course of a match and which makes him the world's most exciting player to watch.
Who is Jay Jay Okocha? For a long while, Austin Okocha lived in the shadow of his elder brother, Emmanuel, an ex-Super Eagles midfielder. Having been spotted as a superb street-pitch star at Abakpa Nike, Enugu in the late 1980's, Jay Jay had a short stint with Rangers International of Enugu before pitching tent with Borussia Neukirehen F.C from far away Germany. There, he got his breakthrough in German football. He was thereafter "smuggled" by the Bundesliga side, Eintracht Franckfurt. There, his talent again blossomed. He was consequently spotted by the Nigerian Football Association, NFA officials who invited him to serve his fatherland. Since then, Austin has been a part of Nigeria's success or failure in international football. There is however what soccer enthusiasts term a dark side to the Okocha phenomenon: excessive self-expression at the expense of the collective. This penchant for celebration of the self had cost him the "starting line shirt" in important matches. But he usually takes such setbacks with equanimity and bids his time.
When fielded eventually, though he strives to subsume his game within the overall team pattern, the artist in him yearns for freedom. At the 1994 Nations Cup championship he played only a few matches, and yet the legendary Pele of Football picked him out as the new soccer jewel from Africa. Also, Okocha played a few matches at the 1994 World Cup and was voted as "the discovery of USA' 94". His superlative performance at Wembley that year against England left the English press wondering if soccer artistry was not in fact an African creation. Some section of the press went to the extent of symbolically burying English football. One English commentator even dubbed him "African magician". At Wembley, Okocha was asked to play his normal game. He shone like a million stars. Anytime he is instructed to play a strictly team game, he falters. He is not alone. Maradona did the same, ditto for Paul Gascoigne (Gazza) of England. Regiment them to team discipline and the team itself dies. Allow them room for self-expression and they would creatively steer the collective ship to victory.
Gazza was, for sure, a symbol of the bull dog tenacity of the English: superb ball control, fast dribbles, fast switches, and bull-like charges at goals. He, it was, who through inspirational play in the English squad, restored the exuding pride of the English. Then the "Gazza magic" became a song of renewal, rediscovery and excellence. Gascoigne was a team player but his abundant skill and "Lion heart" kept him apart. Also, Maradona brought his creative ingenuity to bear on the overall tactical approach of the Argentine team. When team efforts prove abortive he draws on his reservoir of energy and creativity, goes solo and rescues the collective like a General with ten soldiers that he was. For Maradona and Gazza, self-expression, rather than an end in itself, was a means to and end. Defence splitting passes and solo efforts crossed out one another in the contest between the self and the collective. These are the rare qualities that Jay Jay Okocha possesses in intimidating magnitude.
Even before his recent retirement from active football, Okocha has enjoyed more rave reviews and acclaim in global media than any other soccer star currently in the bargain. Following his calculations and dexterity that dramatically saved his club-side, Bolton Wanderers from relegation in the 2003 English Premiership, the Nigerian wonder boy and Super Eagles skipper had received an accolade from the celebrated world-wide news leader, the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, which had picked Okocha's solo effort against West Ham as the "goal of the week" on April 19. The world's leading media empire ranked Okocha's goal in the same category as those scored by Tottenham Hotspur's Robbie Keane against Birmingham on April 6 in another Premiership game, Michael Owen's stunner against Lienhtenstein in England's Euro 2004 qualifying win on March 30, and Thierry Henry's screamer against Chelsea also in the Premiership on March 9, 2003.
Yet, the Nigerian international capped his effort in May of that year with a more daring performance when he actually rescued his team from relegation in the English Premiership tango.
In the said decisive and ill-tempered game against Middles borough, the Nigerian midfield creator confirmed speculators that he was the greatest wonder to have emerged from the Premiership that year. After dazzling and holding the entire stadium spell-bound for the greater period of the game with his sublime skill and magical displays, the match entered decision time. The Nigerian soccer sensation then grabbed a pass at the centre and in a twinkling of an eye, Jay Jay had displaced five Middlesborough's defenders and was headed for the eighteen yard box before he was brought down by a deadly attack from one of Borough's defenders. With just a few minutes to signal the end of the encounter, he repositioned himself for the ensuring free-kick and then riffled home from a 25-metre angle the clincher that upturned Bolton Wanderers' fate. That was how he joined the league of the world's free-kick specialists such as Roberto Carlos, and David Beckham. Okocha was all-rounded having worked on his stamina and adopted a dare-devil approach to goal-hunting. Above all, his humility and love for his country stand him out any day, anytime. He is indeed Nigeria's greatest soccer hero of all time. And if football is all about entertainment, then he has no rival.
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