Nigeria football icon, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, has claimed that he would have cost around €150m in today’s transfer market.
Okocha moved to Fenerbahce of Turkey from Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany in 1996 in a deal reported to be worth around £1m after the German club was relegated to the lower tier of football.
The exciting midfielder excelled during his two years with the Turkish club and an impressive performance at the 1998 FIFA World Cup impressed French giants, Paris Saint Germain, who paid an African transfer record fee of £14m to lure the player to France.
Okocha in an interview with hurriyet, expressed optimism that he would have cost around €150m going by the current transfer market.
He said, “Maybe 1 billion Euros should have been paid for me.
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“They (Chelsea) paid £106m for their defensive midfielder. To a player from Portugal. I would have cost around €150m. My assists, dribbles… World football started to pay a lot of money. Such would be the numbers of players of this quality.”
The 49-year-old equally expressed sadness at leaving Fenerbahçe, where he was loved by the fans.
He added, “It was a really difficult decision. I left very sadly. I was very happy in Fenerbahçe. Moreover, I married my wife in Turkey. My children were about to be born.
“When I went to the World Cup, I had no such thing in mind. After the matches in the World Cup, an offer came from PSG. Aziz Yildirim was the president. He didn’t want to send me. He didn’t even interview the PSG club. This process has been very difficult. Despite my sadness, when such an offer came, I wanted to make money for Fenerbahçe.”
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