Former Nigeria captain Austin JayJay Okocha has been named among the best 100 players that ever played in the Premier League by the influential football magazine, FourFourTwo.
Okocha scored 14 goals and provided 11 assist in 124 games for Bolton Wanderers between August 2002 and May 2006 and the magazine, basing its criteria on the impact the players have made or are making in the League, that is a combination of their ability, status and the moments they gave fans over the years, chose the mercurial midfielder as the 62nd best.
”Okocha was the Ronaldinho of the Reebok. More than anyone else, he made Bolton fashionable with a dazzling array of flicks and tricks, rabonas and stepovers. He could fool foes using his fancy footwork, allied with seemingly elastic legs that appeared to bend during some skills.
Few have found more imaginative ways to lift a ball; indeed, one mind-boggling piece of magic involved a rainbow flick over a baffled Ray Parlour (Arsenal). Okocha packed a vicious long shot and even a long throw, which almost definitely endeared him to (Sam) Allardyce. He was, as the club merchandise used to say, so good they named him twice,’ wrote the magazine about the feats the Nigerian performed in his four seasons in the Premier League.
Okocha won the Premier League player of the month award once (November 2003).He won 43 of the 124 games and lost 44 times. He got seven yellow cards and was never sent off in any of the games he featured in for the Reebok stadium outfit.