Chris Maduewesi
Member
President of the Confederation of African Football(CAF) Issa Hayatou believes that former Nigeria skipper Austin Jay Jay Okocha deserved to have won the African Player of the Year award.
Okocha on numerous occasions missed out on the top prize, losing by just two points to Morocco's Mustapha Hadji in 1998, and twice finishing in third position behind Samuel Eto'o and Didier Drogba in 2003 and 2004.
Hayatou who was speaking during last week's gala event in Lagos, where Yaya Toure won a fourth consecutive Player of the Year award, noted that Okocha would have been worthy winner of the award had he won it.
“Players like Jay Jay Okocha would have been very worthy to feature in the list of winners. But the technicians decided otherwise, it is the law of the game,” Hayatou said at the event last week.
Okocha in 2003 and 2004 was twice voted the BBC African Player of the Year by the fans, the same period that he finished behind Eto'o and Drogba in the CAF awards.
Okocha on numerous occasions missed out on the top prize, losing by just two points to Morocco's Mustapha Hadji in 1998, and twice finishing in third position behind Samuel Eto'o and Didier Drogba in 2003 and 2004.
Hayatou who was speaking during last week's gala event in Lagos, where Yaya Toure won a fourth consecutive Player of the Year award, noted that Okocha would have been worthy winner of the award had he won it.
“Players like Jay Jay Okocha would have been very worthy to feature in the list of winners. But the technicians decided otherwise, it is the law of the game,” Hayatou said at the event last week.
Okocha in 2003 and 2004 was twice voted the BBC African Player of the Year by the fans, the same period that he finished behind Eto'o and Drogba in the CAF awards.