From Eintracht Frankfurt To Heaven!

BY IKENWA ASHIBUOGWU NNABUOGOR

Ex-Eagles’ captain Augustine “Jay Jay” Okocha rode on the kind waves of the modest Bundesliga side Eintranct Frankfurt to Jogo Bonito heavens.

So good he was named twice, Jay Jay’s ship hit the ice berg in Germany by accident but rather steadied his ship to Frankfurt safety.

His German stories have been told several times and it wasn’t particularly impossible that the young lavishly skilful Enugu-born superstar was on the wrong side of his career.

What Frankfurt saw wasn’t just for trial and error, in Jay Jay, instant stardom was no a brainer for eggheads in the newly-promoted Bundesliga side, who saw a raw goldmine in him.

Not much was told about his Regionaliga showing at Borussia Nierkuchen but his sudden but expected out-of-the-world performance at Frankfurt was good enough for a local folklore.

Soon he took over the opera conductor’s role in the middle as he quickly settled down, sharing responsibilities with Maurizio Ganz and feeding Ghana superstar striker Anthony Yeboah to make hay.

Game after game Jay Jay needed no more members of his orchestra as he outshone “Luciano Pavarotti” to the delight of not only Frankfort faithful but Germany as a whole.

From jersey number 12 on arrival to number 10 as he was promoted Admiral of the Fleet, Jay Jay owned his own His Majesty Ship (HMS) as he dictated the nautical miles in the Frankfurt deep waters. Jay Jay was sheer class!

Feeding the goat wasn’t only what he came to Germany to do, he did it himself as Jay Jay became a tough customer the goalkeepers hated to transact business with.

Set pieces were the acts he carried over from Nigeria and the Frankfurt port received tons of them from his storage facilities from his Enugu base. Local side Rangers had tapped a bit having only a little time to stay, Frankfurt had the best laugh.

The vital areas of opponents became the least place opponents would entertain Jay Jay, assurance he would leave crying eyes behind was high and it was.

Lavishly gifted with both feet, curlers in the opponents’ nets were effectively done with these direct gifts from God. Jay Jay was a rare cat!

What about entertainment? Jay Jay almost attracted the UN to make the Frankfurt midfield the latest heritage and cultural site. His circus shows gathered millions to glue their eyes on TV for yet another weekend of entertainment.

It wasn’t a joke taken too far when he took German national team goalkeeper Oliver Kahn to the cleaners, disgracing him back and forth before unleashing his dreaded left foot drive into the Karlsruher empty net. What an audacity!

The media went wild on the rare individual effort as advertisers raced against each other to land a TV commercial using the individual goal.

Jay Jay had been made a national hero as German stood up for the precocious talent from Nigeria. It wasn’t surprising he was named twice.

The attention generated from that brilliant goal was global; enquiries from bigger spenders made headlines, media frenzied, advertisers queued up and ultimately, Super Eagles called.

His route to Super Eagles wasn’t a direct flight, detouring with the Flying Eagles watered ground and it was just a matter of time, he was a brand new Eagle.

Coach Clemens Westerhof had a difficult, firm decision to make, retiring erstwhile Eagles’ midfield general Friday Ekpo, and making Jay Jay his new general, opened a brand new vista for the brilliant 20-year old midfielder.

Things were not the same any longer with his gaffer at Frankfurt and PSG forked out a princely €14 million to make him a transfer record holder in Nigeria.

From then it was a smooth ride to heaven for Jay Jay as he not only shone the lights at club sides, he showed the lights in the Super Eagles, captaining and leading men.

From Fenerbahce, to Bolton, to Qatar’s Qatar Sports Club and to finally, Hull City, Jay Jay screeched his career brakes and halted it to a stop.

His brilliant career for which he was capped 73 times for his country, and netted 14 times, the shine of his beginning at Eintranct Frankfurt was felt by all.