Nigeria legend Sunday Oliseh has revealed that Jay-Jay Okocha’s dribbling irritated a few members of the Super Eagles team during their playing days.
Oliseh played alongside Okocha for the Super Eagles and the retired midfielder has now disclosed how teammates were pissed with Okocha’s flamboyant playing style at times.
Speaking on the on the Athlete’s Podcast, a Special Delivery with Emmanuel Babayaro and Matthew Edafe, the former Nigeria captain and coach said:
“With Jay-Jay, most people would say he was a difficult player to play with, as teammates, as defensive players. But I personally had a way, an understanding with Jay-Jay that made it easy for me to play with him.
“There was one particular game, I’ll share a story with you. We were playing and Jay-Jay was doing his normal thing and Nigerian fans were going crazy.
“In our team, as much as we disagreed, every player was a king in their position. We had match winners – most of the players could win games but if someone did something bad in the group, the defenders always tell me, ‘Sunday tell am o’.
Oliseh continued: “They knew I was the only one who could say to Jay-Jay that ‘my man, release the ball and Jay-Jay would release. There was one particular game, he was doing it and we lost the ball. And the ball was coming and Taribo was going crazy about him. And he lost the ball one more time, and I told him ‘hey my man, I’m tired of running.
“The next time he went on dribbling and lost the ball. I left the man. I let the opponent pass and they almost scored. Taribo went crazy, he crossed ahead of me and I had to grab him. Don’t joke with Taribo. He wants to win. He’s fanatical about winning,” Oliseh concluded
