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Okocha to some is VSOP and to others vinegar so bad that they would not let it grace their least expensiv
e or most hated salad. I am yet to find another example in modern sports history where the curve between the 2 disagreeing camps is so steep and so further apart. How did this happen ? Can one person be god and goat doing the same thing ? Who is this enigmatic Okocha ? Is he a gluttonous self centered "Ich mensch" bent on personal glorification or is he a simple player of what Pele calls "the beautiful game" who executes to the beat of a different drummer ? These are the questions we will attempt to address in this piece
Jay Jay was born on August the 14th 1973 in Enugu Nigeria. The 3rd son behind two other skilled brothers he would inherit the name Jay Jay not from Emma (JJ 2) who would also play for Nigeria, but from the oldest one Gerald (JJ 1) known through out Enugu as well . How many times have we seen brothers wilt under the burden of expectations set by an older brother most notably Wole never being another Segun ? Well in this case Jay Jay 3 not only took the mantle but he modified it and ran away with it refusing to ever give it back. 3 things indirectly led to (JJ3)'s discovery - all of them spawned by the great Dutch Coach Westerhof. To better understand the "stimmung" in Nigeria then let us go back and start from the crux of the matter. First of all Westerhof had just banished the gifted bad boy Etim Esin to playing "set football" for the rest of his life and was at that time bent on imprinting his "way" in the Nigerian camp. Refusing to let Esin back no matter how much he was blasted by both the NFA and the Nigerian press , Westerhof focused on seeking fresh blood and commenced inviting in scores of unknown new players to the Eagles camp.
They would include other future stars like Amokachi, Ikpeba, and Okpara. Not waiting for the NFA to shell out money for equipment-something they had often failed to do and something that had turned off many prospective campers in the past-Westerhof sealed the deal....commencing a long love affair between coach and player....by using money donated by Chief B.S. Willams to purchase state of the art kits without NFA approval. When the President moved in and quashed the resulting "inquisition" by the NFA...it was clear who the Big Boss in camp was . (1) This show of reckless bravado impressed so many-fan and foe alike- that most academicals and "Wanna-be-Eagles" still sitting on the fence of indecision were soon Lagos bound causing the camp to fill with such an abundance of raw talent that many were forced to initially sleep on the floor. (2) This Ladies and Gentlemen was how JJ, Nigeria's greatest treasure next to Bonny Light was discovered and unleashed on Africa. The Algerians were to the first to be introduced to the new "lethal weapon" when in 1993 he bent a ball around the Desert Warrior wall in a 4-1 Eagle route. Since then JJ has scored for Nigeria against the USA in 1995 in Boston [ 8th minute], twicw against Tunisia in Lagos in 2000 [28th minute and 58th minutes], against Cameroon in the same ANC competition twice [ 47th min and PK ] against Sierra Leone in the 16th minute in the first WC qualification game and finally with the volley against the Sudan in the 35th minute in both countries last WC encounter. So as of March 2001 Okocha was ranked as Nigeria's 23rd All time scorer with a GPG of 0.19%. Considering that Yekini averaged a stunning 0.64% and Odegbami an even 0.50% ,(1) Okocha bashers point to this stat over and over when they growl that the man is more flash than substance. But we are getting ahead of ourselves
Juju Don Jamm Wizard
We are not sure if JJ came from abject poverty because by definition that differs day by day and in Africa the lack of material wealth does not necessarily equate misery. Especially not in Igbo land where the extended family reaches across society like a huge safety net to catch the less fortunate in time of need. Was the Okocha family forced to live in an abandoned train car courtesty of a family friend ? Did JJ once sell oranges for a living ? These things cant be established without travel to Enugu and in depth research - however the latter part makes you want to believe that this is where the artistry of keeping a ball or sucked out orange airborne longer than a Russian space station was developed. I can close my eyes and see it now. A young JJ in blue P&T knickers and fish net singlet bouncing an orange away from the red clay like Uwani soil....of the back heel...of the front foot...then the knee...then instep....then trapping it with no noise - all to the ehhhhhhssss and oohhhhhhs of his clapping peers. It is not difficult to imagine...even with no imagination. Anyway club wise J3 would start his professional career at 16 wearing the all white of the famous "flying antelopes" arguably Nigeria's finest home side AKA the Enugu Rangers. There he would develop into one of the Pepsi Leagues most dominant dribblers and deliver moves with such creativity that we have to go all the way back to Titus Okere who at age 21 in 1946 caused such a storm in the UK dribbling bare footed that the press valued him at 15,000 Pounds Sterling and a row of houses. (1) JJ was that good then.....and soon as with everything good in Africa...the show had to be taken "out of Africa" and on to the road....the road this time being Germany's Bundesliga. So at the tender age of 17 JJ was Rhine Valley bound.
Many do not know that JJ technically speaking played for 2 German clubs before finally landing a "solid gold" spot on the Eintracht Frankfurt first 11. He started out with "Borussia Neunkirchen" in the 2nd Division but within months had dribbled his way to Karlsruhe SC and then to Eintracht where he would score the 1st of his 2 platinum goals. I quote German TV " He is home alone, in front of the Goal, with only one defender to beat but does the unthinkable. He waits for the defense to reset and then calmly dribbles each of the 4 defenders silly before pausing and banging the ball into the net with such ice cold ferocity that we all are forced to rethink the absence of winter theory in Nigeria".(2) Till today when you mention the name Oliver Khan, Bundesliga fans smile not at his various accomplishments for the DFB or with Bayern but at that one moment where just like Michael Jordan "posterized" Patrick Ewing with that killer dunk in NY, JJ made him immortal with moves that are simply till today when viewed on Video incomprehensible. JJ to borrow the "Urban Rap" terms provided "heat" in Germany but never "blew" up. Regardless of what he did in the US WC with Nigeria where he was named one of the Worlds top 5 midfielders (3) or what he did every Sunday in Germany, on Monday morning he got little play in the Vanilla-centric press something that failed to go unnoticed by the huge Turkish population in Germany who had seen the very same thing happen to many Germans of Turkish ancestry. They soon adopted him as their favorite player and the greatest dilemma in the Turkish community suddenly became not the winning Presidential vote in Istanbul that year, but what would happen when a Turk would be drawn to mark JJ in that weekends Bundesliga game. JJ basked in their love and though he continued to give Eintracht his best, that Igbo heart beneath chiseled muscle started beating with a murmur of doubt and a major hint that it wanted change. Then came the Olympics in Atlanta and things would never be the same again
The Atlanta Olympics..was a coming attraction of "bigger Things To Come".
To give the Atlanta Olympic Games and Nigeria's stunning victory both barrels of the shot gun would without saying deviate from the JJ story and that we don't want to do. So I have picked the ultimate paragraph defining what happened in Georgia-out of the countless available- to summate the Nigerian experience. "Wins against three of the top teams in South and Central American football, nine goals and some magic play such as is seldom seen in the final stages of an international competition. The dramatic "Golden Goal" victory against reigning world champions Brazil after trailing 1:3 was the high point of a fantastic performance by this Nigerian side. (4) And all through this the Turks continued their full court press on Okocha. Haven just been assimilated into that great Socio-Economic fraternity called the European Union....What better way was there to show the other snooty Europeans that Istanbul was not just good for good coffee, cheap hashish and great tobacco...but great entertaining Soccer as well ? "Get JJ" the fans wept to the big wigs and they complied making a return to Frankfurt as appealing to Mr. Okocha as a cookout with the Klan ! Fact = It was the Presidential Jet that whisked JJ away from the euphoria of the Nigerian celebration in the USA and deposited him on the grounds of Fenerbache Istanbul. I could try a thousand times and still fail a thousand and one times to capture the exuberance and passion with which JJ was greeted by the Turks. No one does it as well as Michael Cockerill did in his July 1 1998 WC Report which reads : "Ergidir, central Turkey, in the middle of a warm spring evening. A crowd has gathered around the only television set in a small cafe by the lake. Through the cigarette haze, a grainy picture broadcasts a key match from Istanbul. Fenerbache, one of the nation's most popular teams, is playing. There is no recollection of their opponents, or the result. The only memory is of two words, repeated over and over. And each time, the excitement is palpable. "Jay Jay". "Jay Jay". (5) In a country where football is a religion, he is worshipped like a god. In return, he has taken out Turkish citizenship and delivered a National Championship. That's how things work in a mutual admiration society."
Meanwhile back in Nigeria the JJ juggernaut, fed by successes in Atlanta and in the US World Cup where the Eagles came within seconds of sending Italy home and securing Africa's second quarter final, had moved from cruise control to over drive. Whenever JJ returned home he could be seen zipping around Enugu and Lagos in his customized Cherokee with personalized "Jay Jay 10" tags playing the role of son of the soil...done good. His sudden appearance at say a regular pick up game at the Nike (pronounced Neekay) high school ground where he would remove his boots to play-because the bare footed kids pointed to it as an advantage- would send the city into an impromptu festival ending late a night under the beams of Taxi cabs arranged in a circle to provide illumination. (6)
Here to put things into proper context regarding the love affair that was now in full bloom between Nigeria and her new favorite son is a conversation over heard in one of Nigeria's notorious Moluwe buses used for mass transit. "The Nigeria Football Supporters Club and FEDEX hired a truck to drum up support for the Eagles by moving around Lagos, singing and dancing. The molue bus behind the supporters club caravan turned into an arena for Super Eagles 'players.' The medicine- hawker in the bus called himself Jay-Jay Okocha! The bus conductor took the name of the Bull, that is, Daniel Amokachi, arguing that Amokachi is a better player than Okocha. "Na lie!" shouted a passenger in a thick Yoruba accent. "Jay-Jay go dribble Amokachi and all his family!" "Na dribble be football?" asked the driver of the molue. "No mind the mumu," said the conductor. "Without the goals wey the bull score, Nigeria far no go World Cup. Yeye Jay-Jay de there de dribble even the goal post. One goal, him no fit score!"
"If Okocha no pass ball, how Amokachi fit score? asked the passenger. "Joo, na Okocha get football. If him no give you ball, you go become ordinary passenger for field." (7)
Every rose, no matter how sweet smelling has a thorn I am told and as we can see from the first sentences uttered by both the driver and conductor these thorns were beginning to show as more and more "expert" Nigerians pondered why their exciting football could not translate into more x's in the win column like say a Brazil. In no instance was this more apparent than after Nigeria crashed out of her second WC in France after being taken behind the woodshed for a sound beating by Denmark. The fact that Denmark was ahead of Nigeria in the FIFA ranking when they met was superfluous to the dissenting fans as was JJ-the only African- again being named to FIFA's 16 man All Star squad. Whatever blame was not heaped on the main "billy-goat" Rufai found its way unto JJ's plate underlining the fact that in Nigeria consistency is a mere footnote when cups are not lifted high above heads. In his post WC critique "Where Eagles Fall" Dennis Ogbemudia hammers home the points mirrored as rumblings on the street. Of course the barbs are not all aimed at Number 10 but when he writes..... "Our number ten , Jay Jay Okocha held onto the ball just a little too long at times, and Denmark was able to completely mat out Sunday Oliseh in the midfield.".....most of us can relate. However his other sentence in the same paragraph "So Okocha should have used some passes to break the defense but could not due to what I believe to be instructions of the coach" ( 8 ) some how does not get the same air play as his first. Lost also are Bora's other tactical blunders such as not using a 3-4-4 to protect an aging Rufai instead of the disastrous 4-4-2 and transplanting "the Headmaster" from behind his desk in the mid field to play bell ringer in the defense.
Well, while all of these facts remained lost to us Nigerians for whatever reasons the French who had front row seats to the WC and who ironically disagree on everything else saw things differently. Unlike with the Turks whose fixation was the lacadezic dribble the "suits" at PSG claimed it was a matter of poise and heart with JJ and point to a particular period in the game when Nigeria was down 0:3 and one guy was playing all 10 positions.The rest we know is history. For the mind boggling equivalent of a nuclear submarine JJ was soon the number one resident at the Park of Princes in gay Paris where he promptly served all of France notice with his second platinum goal in his very first game. Meanwhile the seeds of discontent back home fed by the Super Eagles inability to beat Cameroon for the third time in an ANC Final had now blossomed into a nightmarish garden of creepers and thorny bushes and JJ certainly did not help his case. First of all there was the verbal lashing he gave fans after the Taribo All Star game when he was mobbed (and his earring ripped from his ear) and then came the no show against Eritrea which furthermore infuriated the masses and put him in the camp of the spoiled, non nationalistic professionals ala Babayaro. The erosion continued with Nigeria's lackluster play in the 2002 WC qualification games where a noticeably heavier JJ panted in the midfield more like a coal gobbling steam engine on the Kaduna - Port Harcourt line than the bundle of tricks we were used to seeing. Yet they remained flashes of brilliance as caught by Dave Enechukwu (RIP) who wrote " from the pack of poor players, mostly bench warmers in Europe, popped the essential JJ. Even though he played a percentage game, he provided some thrills, as well as some indelible tactical contributions to the 2-0 win. He shot the side in front at 15 minutes, pouncing on a mélange of misses to score with a low, hard drive." (9)
A Miracle Walking
Then came the broken promise. Or should I say promises ? Because what hurt Nigerians the most in the Freetown disaster is that we heard it in stereo. First the Coach promised to resign if we lost and.... didn't and then JJ picked the weakest team in Africa next to Equatorial Guinea to have "the game of his life" and didn't. Rather he jeopardized air safety over the West African country by monopolizing and wasting a bakers dozen of free kicks. Was this the same JJ that the Kenyans had carried around their Stadium on their shoulders after he abused them for 90 minutes ? Or the same one that a Sudanese forward wanted to kneel down in front of when he first met him in PH ? Was this the same JJ that the devil refuses to watch without a sweater because his moves are so cold that they give him the chills ? In her darkest hour Nigeria wept and we wept with her.......................... .........but then true to the Nigerian way something stirred deep within the beast and it woke up in a bad mood and ready to play ! Nigeria reinvented herself, got rid of a $30,000 a month ball and chain and introduced us to the "holy" trilogy we call AKE ! JJ reinvented himself too ! We were introduced to the sleeker more complete version against the Falcons when he unleashed the shot that was heard around the world and speared the Sudanese net in their Part 2 encounter. It would be this volley that would commence Nigeria's most lopsided on the road victory since our ECOMOG troops ambushed the UDF elite guard outside of Waterloo a couple of years ago. It is amazing how success makes everything well again, because the love affair is in full bloom again. Against Ghana-in Nigeria's must win WC encounter -JJ was the undisputed propeller that whirred in the Nigerian midfield eating up real estate with the hunger of a brand new lawn mower and once again kola nut stained grins graced our TV screens as again Nigeria will be WC bound. Could 3 times in Asia be thrice as nice for the Eagles who in their various forms have never come back from Asia anything but winners ? With the new JJ....anything is possible
CREDITS 1 - 9 ENUGU II / TOR / FIFA / GOAL.COM / DFB
PART 2 COMING SOON
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Posted by Robot| 19.03.2008 02:18