Jay Jay Okocha or Mohamed Aboutrika? Fans Disagree Sharply on Who Was a Better Playmaker

Jay Jay Okocha or Mohamed Aboutrika? Fans Disagree Sharply on Who Was a Better Playmaker

Martin Moses
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:02 PM
In this article:
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A. A. Okocha
--Nigeria logo
  • A Social media post by the Confederation of African Football about who was a better playmaker between Jay Jay Okocha and Mohamed Aboutrika has sharply divided fans
  • Okocha was a Super Eagles great winning the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic games
  • Aboutrika meanwhile played the whole of his career in Egypt, winning two AFCON titles in the process and a bronze medal at the FIFA Club World Cup

Football fans have been left divided on who was a better playmaker between Jay Jay Okocha and Mohamed Aboutrika. The two legends led very impressive careers for the Nigeria Super Eagles and the Pharaohs of Egypt respectively.

A poll conducted on the Confederation of African Football(CAF) social media pages left fans disagreeing sharply. CAF teased its followers with photos of Okocha, Aboutrika, Karim Ziani of Algeria and Khalilou Fadiga of Senegal.

Jay Jay Okocha, Mohamed Aboutrika, Khalilou Fadiga, Chidi Odiah, Super Eagles, Nigeria, Egypt
Jay Jay Okocha of Nigeria celebrates his goal with Chidi Odiah during the 2006 World Cup Qualifying match between Nigeria and Angola. Photo by Ben Radford.
Source: Getty Images

Okocha played for a number of European clubs including Paris Saint Germain, Fenerbache and Eintracht Frankfurt. He was also a core member of the Super Eagles team where he amassed 73 appearances, finding the back of the next 14 times.

The attacking midfielder was part of the Nigerian squads that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and most importantly, gold at the 1996 Olympic games.

Aboutrika on the other hand spent the majority of his career with African giants Al Ahly. He scored 38 goals in 100 appearances for the national team. He won the 2006 and 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. In the 2008 edition, he scored the winning goal in the final against Cameroon.

@john_binho tweeted that

The one that was so good, they named him twice. Jay Jay Okocha.

On Facebook, Oladejo Ayodele said

No player in Africa past or present comes close to J J Okocha when talking about footwork.

Essam Ahmed took vouched for Aboutrika by saying:

Aboutrika, the opressed legend inside this continent, that he is the one of the most skilled people who have passed through this continent, and the best of them is the Egyptian magician.

There were also mentions for Khalilou Fadiga who turned out for a couple of clubs including Inter Milan and Bolton Wanderers. Andrew Yacoub bemoaned that medical reasons might have hampered the Teranga Lion.

Khalilou Fadiga was a very talented lion, but unfortunately, he disappeared after a while, I think because of medical reasons.

The debate will continue to divide fans down the middle with both sets of players having staunch supporters.

Messi praises Gyan

Sports Brief had earlier reported that Lionel Messi had showered praise on Black Stars legend Asamoah Gyan. Messi mentioned that Gyan was a great goalscorer.

Messi was particularly impressed by Gyan’s goal in the 2014 World Cup against Germany. Gyan is Ghana’s all-time leading scorer with 51 goals from 109 international appearances.

He is also Africa’s top scorer at the FIFA World Cup. Gyan is yet to announce his retirement officially and could as well be included in Ghana’s World Cup squad, should he work on his sharpness.

Authors
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Martin Moses
Martin Moses is a sports journalist with over five years of experience in media. He graduated from Multimedia University of Kenya (Bachelor of Journalism, 2017-2021)
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