Not Winning African Footballer Of The Year, My Biggest Regret – Ex-Eagles Skipper – Jay Jay Okocha

With Vincent Enyeama being nominated for the 2014 Africa Footballer Of The Year and standing a big chance to win it since the last time Nwankwo Kanu won the award, Ex-Super Eagles captain and creative midfielder, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha has expressed his deepest regret for not winning the highly regarded title.

In a football career spanning more or less 20 years, travelling across the borders of the world, Okocha, scorer of the 1000th African Nations Cup goal, a one-time most expensive player in Africa and arguably the best in the continent to have never won the prestigious award, having lost out on several nominations to Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, and others, most disappoint in 1998 and 1999 when he came second, said.

"If I have any regret that would be not winning The African Footballer of the Year. But then, I don't think I was meant to because I gave my best, but at the end, it wasn't good enough,’’ Okocha said in an interview with Encomium magazine, adding ''However, I had a fantastic playing career"

However, Okocha won the inaugural BBC African Footballer of the year in 2003 and the one after it in 2004, becoming the first and only African till date to win the honour back-to-back.