Brazilian football legend, Ronaldinho believes former Nigerian captain and midfield maestro, Jay-Jay Okocha didn’t live up to the potentials of his talent due to his move to Bolton Wanderers in the English Premier League.
Okocha joined Bolton in 2002 after spending four years at Paris Saint-Germain where he made 84 appearances scoring 12 goals.
He would go to spend another four years at Bolton, racking up 124 appearances, but his former PSG teammate feels his move to England was a wrong one.
“Jay Jay Okocha, wow!! That man made football to listen to him. At training, we would watch him doing a freestyle, whatever he wanted to do, the ball would do it. But his problem is that he was too keen to move to England,” Ronaldinho said.
“I didn’t like the decision, at least in Italy or Spain, there, they allow you to play your skilled football without interfering with your play. In La Liga or Serie A, he would definitely get a chance to play for a big team, because they love skilled players over there. In England, you stand no chance of playing for a big team if you’re that skilled. They think it’s not necessary.”
Ronaldinho has never hidden his admiration for former Nigeria captain Austin Okocha.
Okocha had a nomadic 18-year career across Germany, Turkey, France, Qatar and England, and was regarded as an icon at Bolton where he featured most in his club career and also helped them move from just outside of the relegation zone to European football for the first time.
Okocha, in an interview with talkSPORT in 2021 confessed that the move wasn’t completely thought out.
“I will say that it’s obvious that I didn’t really do my research before signing for Bolton,” he told talkSPORT Breakfast.
“As a football person, football comes first, not the city, not the lifestyle, but one thing that’s clear is that the training ground was different, the attitude towards the games was different.”
Okocha played the entirety of his Bolton career under Sam Allardyce, achieving huge success at the formerly-named Reebok Stadium.
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