98 African player of the year, Okocha was better than me – Mustapha Hadji

[emezico]

Born 41 years ago in Ifrane, Morocco, he migrated with his family to France at a tender age where he grew into a man. Ex-Moroccan international, Mustapha Hadji revealed in this encounter with INNOCENT AMOMOH in Accra, Ghana how he felt that Nigeria's Austin 'Jay Jay' Okacha deserved the 1998 African Player of the Year award which he eventually won. He also lamented the absence of Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt from the forth- coming African Cup of Nations slated to commence in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea from January 21. Excerpts.

The Nations Cup will be holding in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea few weeks from now. Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt are not going to be represented. How do you feel about this?

It is really disappointing. Football fans in Morocco are more disappointed because these are big football nations and the realisation of the fact that they will not be available for African's biggest football event is a different feeling entirely. These are countries that used to be in the final and semi final of the Nations Cup because we always expect them to be there, but this time around they won't be participating. It is not a good feeling. In one or two years, I hope they will be back again because they have quality players. Its understandable because most of these countries are rebuilding. A new generation of footballers are being discovered, they need to build a new team, and need the right managers to help achieve these things and give confidence to the new players.

In 1998 you beat Jay Jay Okocha to the African Player of The Year award. Do you remember?

Yes I do remember. Jay Jay is a great player, skillful, and I must confess that I was one of his fans. I used to watch him play and also played against him. For me he was a good example to see. When I won against him the African Player of the Year award in '98 I felt he actually deserved it. He deserved it more than any one else because he represented African and all the African kids well. And he has been a big role model throughout his career. I am really happy for him today that he is being considered to be here today as one of the legends of African football.

Since retirement, what has Mustapha Hadji been up to?

I used to live in Europe but have returned to my country to help the sports minister in helping the young kids to have the opportunity to play football in good condition. Not only in football, but other sports as well. They will have the opportunity to build a career in their chosen sports. So that is my job for now in Morocco.

What do you think is responsible for the absence of Nigerian players at the top of African football?

Like I said before, using my country as an example, ten years back we had a great team and immediately we left a vacuum was created. But we started building a new generation of players and a mew team. Players between 20 and 22 years' olds and we started building for like ten years now. Same for Nigeria, when the Okochas and Kanus left, you need time to build a new team, say three, four years more and your team will be great again. It is always like that, even in France, you can see that after the generation of the Zidane, France started building a new team, and to achieve this one needs to be patient. I think Nigerian players will soon return to top spot in African football top.


The Nation