Pitch Awards, A Great Idea – Okocha

Former Nigeria great, Jay Jay Okocha has commended the initiative of Football Awards that will reward all areas of the football Pitch on an annual basis.

The Nigeria Football Federation has endorsed a drive by Matchmakers Consult International Limited to organize a Nigeria Pitch Awards, for which a world press conference will hold in Lagos on Tuesday and which inaugural edition is scheduled for December this year.

“The idea of an Annual Football Awards is long overdue. It is a good thing that the present NFF administration has decided to endorse and support the private initiative of Matchmakers to start something.

“As a former player and as a Member of the NFF Technical Sub-Committee, I give my full support to the drive. There is really nothing like due recognition, which is the purpose of Awards,” Okocha said on Thursday.

Born Augustine Azuka Okocha on August 14, 1973, Jay Jay won 73 caps for the Super Eagles and played at three FIFA World Cup finals, in 1994, 1998 and 2002. He captained the Super Eagles at the 2002 finals in Korea and Japan and also played in five African Cup of Nations finals, winning gold, silver and bronze.

He was named the Most Valuable Player and Top Scorer of the 2004 African Cup of Nations finals in Tunisia and later that same year, was named the BBC African Footballer of the Year.

Seen globally as Nigeria’s most successful midfield impressario of all time, Jay Jay Okocha played club football in Germany, Turkey, France and England, becoming Africa’s most expensive football player when he moved from Fenerbahce in Turkey to Paris Saint Germain in France for a fee of about $24 million.