Nigerian players don’t deserve top CAF award – Okocha

Punch

Former Super Eagles captain Austin Jay-Jay Okocha has said that Nigeria performed poorly at the just concluded Glo-CAF Awards because no Nigerian player is good enough to be named African Footballer of the Year.

Okocha told journalists at the event in Abuja that Nigerian football had gone down drastically.

According to him, the country now ranks a distant 66 in the world and 14 in Africa, adding that the results posted recently by Nigerian teams and clubs in Africa have not been very encouraging.

The former Bolton Wanderers captain said the country must go back to the basics and accept that it is no longer ranked among the giants of African football.

He explained that doing that would not only help the country to not only rise up the world football rankings, but also to start preparations for the 2017 Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup respectively on time.

He said, “I don’t think any of our players at this moment deserve to be there because we have struggling this time around. We must try to work hard to make sure that we will have one person in contention next time. Honestly speaking we are going through a rough period, but there is nothing to be ashamed of.

“We all need to battle and make sure we return to where we really belong. We have signs that could suggest that we may qualify for Gabon, but we must work had to see it work out by acknowledging that first of all we are not doing very well, so we have to humble ourselves by starting afresh.

“Once we accept our faith at the moment, I think there will be a fresh beginning for us.

“Deservingly, we are at our current ratings because our results have not been very encouraging. We just need to accept it and then fight our way back. I have no fear about the Super Eagles qualification for Gabon 2017. You know that football knows no small or big country this time around.

“But we must first admit our that our current form is not that good, so that we can begin to put certain measures tat will return us to where we should be by first seeking to qualify for the nations cup. I believe that Sunday Oliseh will give us the ticket for Gabon.”