No Regrets Not Winning the Premier League – Jay Jay Okocha Names Man City Star as His Favourite in EPL

While speaking in an exclusive interview with Goal.com, Super Eagles legend, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, whose popularity has endured beyond the end of his playing career, as evidenced by his relevance in modern day football, has opened up on his failure to win the Premier League.

The African football legend whose creative genius on the pitch and inventive brilliance as a player contributed to the growth of the modern game, also explained why he rates Belgian and Manchester City star, Kevin Debruyne as his best in the EPL this season.

Here are excerpts from the chat;

I wanted to play in the Premier League and Bolton offered me that opportunity at that time and that was why I signed for Bolton.

It’s is all about you leading by example and making sure that everyone is okay, you are like the first child of the family and you feel like you are the oldest as well because it comes with a huge responsibility, you have to find a way to make sure that everyone is in good spirit and you have to also show good attitude towards training. It was a responsibility that I welcomed with both hands and I enjoyed every bit of it.

To be honest, we failed to build on the foundation that we laid, and that can only come from our league back home. We’ve failed to improve our league even though it is a bit better now but we still have a long way to go to be able to produce players that can compete at that level, so it is not a rocket science, we just have to make sure that we put a good structure in place that will enable our youths learn about the basis early enough to be able to play for those big clubs.

Well, I have no regrets that I did not the Premier League. I would have been regretting my time England if I had not left my legacy, some people are lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time even without playing many games, they won it. But, the most important thing for me is the opportunity that you have. I think I maximised my opportunity at Bolton, changing the mindset of the people from when I arrived till the time I left. Bolton was one of the relegation candidates when I got there but we took the club to another level and even had the opportunity to play for the first time in the Europa League. So when I look back at what I achieved at Bolton, I think it makes me happy because it was never on our agenda to go for the title.

Without any doubt, it is the publicity and also the money that is in the PL now is unbelievable so, they have taken it to another level, it is a league where every player now wishes to come and play. I think it is also the most demanding league; the pace of the game in the EPL is something else and rightly for me is maybe the best league in the world.

I am very happy about that because we have been struggling for a while now and for us to come out of that group on top shows that we are not too far from being where we are supposed to be. I know the expectations are very high in this country but you have to also realize that in a country of almost 200 million, we should be able to have a good strong national team, so I am delighted that they have qualified now but also at the same time, it is about time to challenge ourselves and believe that we are good enough not just to be partakers but to make an impact.

There are some things you cannot change, I never thought that it would happen but I am so glad that the young man is doing so well and also that he is not regretting the fact that I convinced him to play for Nigeria, so it has worked out well in both ways so I am delighted.

I think it is where every football player wants to be because people like us will have prayed to be there but I would say that nothing is impossible, it is all about staying focused, setting the right targets for yourself and just show commitment and it is all about playing six or seven matches and if you can sacrifice and believe that, you can play at least maybe five games in the tournament, you are talking about semifinals.

At the moment, the person that impresses me the most is Kevin De Bruyne because of his vision, his unselfishness, and I think he is one of the reasons why Manchester City are tearing the other teams apart now.

Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo, El Hadji Diouf – love him or hate him, he was instrumental to what we achieved then, Fernando Hierro and Hidetoshi Nakata from Japan. So we had all nationalities in one team and it was great to have these players in the team.

My worst moment I would say was my first season because I did not realise how tough the EPL is and I did not realise early enough that I signed for a struggling team, but then at the end of the day I will say my greatest moment in EPL was the day that we survived relegation, we survived after the last game of the season.

It’s for me to believe in myself, believe in my ability, never let anybody bring me down and keep working hard because talent is not good enough, you have to work to earn whatever you want to achieve, so hardwork is key.