A Super Eagles legend Austin Jay-Jay Okocha, has revealed that some Nigerian players reduce their real ages to play football.
   Okocha made the revelation during an interview session with Nigerian stand-up comediaTeju Babyface.
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According to the former Bolton Wanderers player, players who reduce their ages do not retire on time.
And in his assertions, players who reduce their ages by subtracting as much as 10 years normally retire on time.
Okocha Makes Revelation About Age Discrepancy In Nigeria Football:
“They do. They do,” he said when asked whether professional Nigerian footballers reduce their ages.
“But you see, sometimes you don’t have to blame them. Because whenever you wake up its your morning.
“And I pity some of them(players who reduce their age). Because that is why some of them cannot retire. Because they want to justify that age. So, some of us retired at age of 28.
According to Okocha, some of the professional players reduce as much as ten years from their real age. And that’s not the best thing for our football’s growth.
“But, between; do we have foreigners here. Between us here, some of them reduce even up to ten years. So, I mean it’s hard. But what do we do?”
In his days Austin, is one of the best skillful midfielders in the world of football. He was Nigeria’s World Cup hero at the previous edition in 1998.
Also, he’s won the AFCON title in 1994. And also an Olympic gold medalist with Nigeria. He won the Olympic games gold in men’s football category in 1996.
At the 2006 AFCON, the midfield maestro won his first ever AFCON highest goalscorer award, scoring 5 goals.
Unfortunately, Austin never won the CAF Best Player Award despite being nominated a couple of times. And according to him, he was pained, but was disappointed in his career.
I Felt Disappointed Not Winning CAF Best Player Award:
“Well sometimes, I feel like the weeping kid, you know,” he said when asked about not winning CAF Best Player.
“If I say it didn’t bother me(not winning CAF Best Player) at a time, I will be lying. Because you set a target for yourself. You want to be the best, belong with the best or among the best.
“And at the end of day of you don’t achieve that target, you feel disappointed.”
