Augustine Azuka Okocha, popularly known as Jay-Jay, and Nwankwo Christian Kanu, also known as Papillo, both came to the Nigerian football limelight in 1993. While Okocha announced himself loudly with a perfect free kick against Algeria in a World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium in Lagos, Kanu was a member of the Wilson Oruma-led, Fanny Amun-coached U-17 team that won Nigeria's second world trophy at that level.

Okocha was to be a member of the Nigerian Super Eagles team that won the African Nations Cup in 1994 in Tunisia and the Super Eagles team that made its debut at the FIFA World Cup in U.S.A. that same year. Kanu, perhaps considered too young then, narrowly missed being part of the 1994 World Cup team.

In 1995, Kanu and Finidi George, playing for Ajax Amsterdam of the Netherlands, beat the then dreaded AC Milan of Italy, to become the first Nigerians to win the European Champions League. The next year, Kanu captained Nigeria 's U-23 team, tagged the Dream Team, and literally gave Nigeria the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, walking over big teams like Brazil and Argentina on the way to glory. That was the first time an African country had won the football gold medal at the Olympics. That same year, Kanu was diagnosed of a heart problem. He was written off by many that he would never play football again, but after the surgery he returned to the round-leather game he loves so much, shining and winning laurels, becoming the most decorated African player ever.

But the truth is that Kanu and Okocha were footballers of the 1990s. Okocha has retired from football. Kanu has announced that he would retire from the national team after this year's World Cup in South Africa. The question many ask is: Why is that even when these two players have passed their prime, both of them continue to be the only Nigerian footballers that brand owners consider worthy to endorse their brands and projects?

Kanu, particularly, has been vilified for his poor grammatical rendition in the Peak Milk advert. He has been the butt of most jokes by Nigerian comedians at every show for rendering his lines with a thick and unpolished accent, saying among other things: "But I was determine to never gif up. You have to dig deep and believe in one ting: ya-sef (yourself)". Many people have reasoned that if players from French-speaking countries like Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Adebayor, playing in England, can learn to speak good English, why has it been difficult for Kanu and Okocha to hire English teachers that would help them brush up their language and loosen their tongue? One would think that after Kanu's poor performance in that Peak's advert and the ridicule that has trailed that performance, he would be shunned by brand owners. But that has not been the case. He has got other brand-endorsement advert deals, including the Nobel Carpet.

On his own part, Okocha got the Guinness Naija advert and the Chi Health Soya Milk advert.

Surprisingly, the Nigerian footballers that play active football all over Europe are nowhere to be found endorsing any product. What is the reason for this? Analysts see this as a vote of no confidence on the current Nigerian players. If retired footballers and tired legs can be chosen to endorse brands while active footballers are scorned, it is a subtle way of saying that no Nigerian playing football today has risen to the level where he could be called a star in recent times. This can be seen in the absence of Nigerian players from the list of winners of the CAF Footballer of the Year Award. Since 1999 when Kanu won that coveted African title the second time, no Nigerian has won it again. The reverse was the case in the 1990s when Rasheed Yekini, Emmanuel Amunike, Nwankwo Kanu and Victor Ikpeba won the award almost back-to-back. Although Okocha never won the award, he came second twice (1998 and 2004). Okocha has been described as the best player that never won the CAF African Footballer of the Year Award, creating the same type of scenario that Chinua Achebe has found himself in as regards the Nobel Prize for Literature. But Okocha was compensated with the BBC African Footballer of the Year on two occasions. In 2004 he was listed in Pelé's FIFA 100 (a list of the greatest 125 living players of all time). In 2007, he was voted number 12 on the greatest African footballers of the past 50 years list, on a poll conducted by CAF to coincide with their 50th anniversary.

That brand owners do not find the present crop of Nigerian footballers good enough to be their brand ambassadors is also a testimony that Nigerians are yearning for the return of the golden days of Nigerian football: the age of football artistry, beauty, class and purpose; the age one could bet on the Super Eagles against any team in the world. That era is epitomised by 'Jay-Jay' Okocha, seen as the dribbling wizard as well as the entertainer par excellence, and 'King' Kanu, who has proved on many occasions that he is the man with the magic wand, the man whom the God of soccer seems to have special love for. When will that era come again?