OLISEH: HOW NIGERIA PLAYERS WERE FRUSTRATED WITH OKOCHA'S DRIBBLING
Not all Eagles enjoyed Okocha's 10 showboating, Oliseh says.
The 47-year-old explains why Super Eagles players would turn to him after their famous midfielder dribbled.
One-time captain of the Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh, has disclosed that many of his national team contemporaries found it difficult playing alongside Austin Jay-Jay' Okocha.
Nigeria legend Sunday Oliseh has discussed how many of his teammates during their time with the Super Eagles needed help to stop Austin 'Jay-Jay' Okocha from dribbling too much.
The 47-year-old played alongside Okocha for the Super Eagles, and Oliseh has further said he was the only player the Bolton star could listen to when his dribbling became too much for the rest of the squad.
Speaking on ElegbeteTV's Athlete's Podcast, Special Delivery with Emmanuel Babayaro and Matthew Edafe, Oliseh said Okocha was immensely gifted but his on-field excesses, particularly his ill-timed showboating, were difficult to cope with and led to a lot of instances where teammates, particularly those with defensive responsibilities, would lose their cool.
"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," said Oliseh, who made his Super Eagles debut in 1993, the same year as Okocha
"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'.
"They knew I was the only one who could say to Jay-Jay 'my man, release the ball' and Jay-Jay would release the ball. There was one particular game, he was doing it and we lost the ball. And the ball was coming and Taribo West was going crazy.
"And he lost the ball one more time, and told him "hey my man, I'm tired of running' And the next time he went about dribbling and lost the ball, left the man; I let the opponent past me and they almost scored. Taribo went crazy. He crossed ahead of me and had to grab him. Don't joke with Taribo. He wants to win. He's fanatical about winning." Oliseh said.
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