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Nigeria football icon Austin Okocha reveals: ‘I would have worth €150m by now’
Published
2 years agoon
By Wale Mustapha
Nigeria great Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha believes he would worth €150m in the current football transfer market.
Okocha joined French giants, PSG from Fenerbache in 1998 for a then African record transfer fee of £14m after his brilliant outing at the France 98 FIFA World Cup.
When asked of his views on what clubs are paying for midfielders in present days football business, citing Enzo Fernandez as case study, the former Super Eagles captain compared transfer prices between his days to the present.
“They paid £106m for their defensive midfielder Chelsea, to a player from Portugal,” Okocha told Turkish media outfit.
“I would have cost around €150m, with my assists, dribbles. World football started to pay a lot of money, such would be the numbers of players of this quality.”
Okocha who won the African Cup of Nations, AFCON title with Nigeria in 1994 is still bittered with how he left Fenerbache for France as he was adored by fans in Turkey.
“It was a really difficult decision. I left very sadly. I was very happy in Fenerbahçe. Moreover, I married my wife in Turkey. My children were about to be born,” the Super Eagles legend continued.
“When I went to the World Cup, I had no such thing in mind. After the matches in the World Cup, an offer came from PSG. Aziz Yildirim was the president. He didn’t want to send me. He didn’t even interview the PSG Club.
“This process has been very difficult. Despite my sadness, when such an offer came, but I wanted to make money for Fenerbahçe.”
Okocha left PSG for Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League after four seasons in France and went on to lead Wanderers to League Cup final in 2004 where they lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough.