By Augustine Kalu on January 21, 2017

Former Super Eagles’ captain and Chairman, Delta State Football Association, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, has tipped Nigeria to win the most converted football award on the continent, Africa Play of the Year (APOY) in the near future.

Okocha, who won for a record three times, the prestigious British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa Footballer of the Year said Nigeria would certainly bounce back to reckoning as far as winning the continental most prestigious football award is concerned.

He explained that his optimism stems from the good signs that are in the horizon already following the emerging young talents in Nigerian Football such as Kelechi Iheanacho, his nephew, Alex Iwobi, William Troost Ekong and Tyronne Ebuehi.

According to him, these Nigerian players hold a very bright prospect for Nigeria to win the converted individual football award on the continent once again in the near future about two decades after national team captain, Nwankwo Kanu won it for the country.

Okocha bared his mind while reacting to the just-concluded Globacom sponsored GloCaf Award held in Abuja last week.

“Well, I think that it is not a bad outing for Nigeria in the GloCaf Award after all. It is true that the main award that everybody is looking at is the Africa Footballer of the Year,” Okocha explained.

“As we rue the continued failure of the country to win the coveted individual award, I think that it will be fair for us to look at the whole awards in its entirety, rather than focus our attention only on the APOY.

“If we take a holistic approach in assessing the awards, we will discover that we didn’t do badly after all. I am not saying that we should be contented with what we got at the award but it was not all about bad news for Nigeria. What I am saying is that we should be fair to ourselves to know that we equally did well at the awards.

“Of course we won four awards out the number of awards at stake and I don’t think that was a bad outing. The main point here is that we lost the most prestigious award which is the Africa Player of the Year, which was won by Riyad Mahrez of Algeria.

“In the female category, it was won by our own Asisat Oshoala. The Super Falcons won the Women Team of the Year. Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi also won awards for the country.

“I believe that in the near future Nigeria will certainly win this coveted award. I believe that we now have very good prospects of Nigerians winning the award in the near future.  I am saying this because we can now boast of young players that are doing well and have the potential of winning the award in the near future.

“I am thinking in the line of players like Kelechi Iheanacho, Victor Osimhen, Alex Iwobi, Williams Troost Ekong and Tyronne Ebuehi. These players I am convinced have all it takes to do the country proud in the near future,” Okocha said.

•Austin Jay Jay Okocha.

Source Daily Sports

Posted January 21, 2017

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