With Yaya Toure winning the African footballer of the year four times in a row there is already the talk of him as the greatest midfielder in Africa. but there a some school of thought that thinks despite his awards he can never be regarded as the greatest midfielder considering the skillfulness of Nigeria’s Jay Jay Okocha whos skill light up the EPL and won the BBC award back to back in his days as a midfielder. That Yaya toure winning the award is only a lack of quality competition in his tme.

What is your take on this :
Who is Africa’s all-time best Midfielder : Yaya Toure or Jay Jay Okocha

okocha all the way.....who born yaya for were okobaba dey as at den??.....when young girls dey brag with deir new clothes...the old woman de brag with her rag clothes because she don live life before dose girls....

dats d case of okocha.....

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has become the first player to be named Confederation of African Football African Footballer of the Year four years in a row.

Toure, 31, was nominated after playing a pivotal role in winning the Premier League and League Cup.

He also helped Ivory Coast qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

Toure beat off the challenge of Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

Midfielder Toure scored 20 goals in City's title-winning campaign and also netted the equaliser in the 3-1 Capital One Cup final victory over Sunderland at Wembley last March.

He has nine goals in 26 appearances for City in all competitions so far this season, including six goals in his last nine outings.

Toure also made the Fifa shortlist for the 2014 Ballon D'Or prize in October.

However, he has also had to contend with the disappointment of being part of an Ivory Coast side that lost two out of their three World Cup games. He was given the news of his brother Ibrahim's death only hours after the team lost their second World Cup match 2-1 to Colombia.

He also hit the headlines in May as a row over a birthday cake threatened to bring an end to his Manchester City career.

Everton striker Samuel Eto'o is the only other player to win the African Footballer of the Year award four times but his achievement was not in successive years.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30736118

Hayatou’s regret: Okocha deserved CAF awards

Confederation of African Football president, Issa Hayatou was of the view that Nigerian football legend, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha deserved to have won the highest African football honour for all his masterful displays during his playing days.
In 2003 and 2004 respectively when Okocha was at his best, the African player of the year award eluded him, much to the surprise of most Nigerian soccer enthusiasts conversant with African football. Instead, Samuel Eto’o was crowned back to back for those years, with Didier Drogba as runner’s up, while Okocha was third. Coincidentally, the former Super Eagles midfield maestro was voted back to back as the BBC African player of the year for the same period. This led to conspiracy theories that there was a Francophone gang-up against Okocha, who is from Nigeria, an Anglophone country.
“If I have any regret that will be not winning The African Footballer of the Year. But then, I don’t think I was meant to because I gave my best, but at the end, it wasn’t good enough,” said Okocha in a recent interview.
At the 2014 CAF awards, Hayatou seemed to have felt his pain as he described the awards established in 1992 as a magnificent achievement and deserving to be won by players who have distinguished themselves on the field of play.
“Players like Jay Jay Okocha would have been very worthy to feature in the list of winners. But the technicians decided otherwise, it is the law of the game,” Hayatou said in his opening remarks.
Okocha who was named by Pele in his list of 125 legends, started his career with the Super Eagles in 1993 in a game against Cote’d Ivoire during an African World Cup qualifier. He cemented his place in the Super Eagles in subsequent years and was influential in the squad. His was part of the team that won the African Cup of Nations for the second time in 1994 and also gold medal at the Atlanta 96’ Olympic Games. However, he was unable to inspire the team to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, it was from that moment his weight began to wane.
There hasn’t been another player like Okocha in the continent. And perhaps this way why Yaya Toure has been crowned four years in a row and he seem bored receiving the awards at the Eko Hotels Convention centre last Thursday night as he did not show any emotion in the ceremony filled with quality entertainment.......



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/hayatous-regret-okocha-deserved-caf-awards/#sthash.nN9Spz5B.dpuf

lukman haruna... **runs outer thread b4 dem catch Me***

Yaya Toure

shyna01:
lukman haruna... **runs outer thread b4 dem catch Me***

ok thats the mixture of both abi

You shld agree if you knw Soccer Politics that Yaya do not deserve the more than 2 of the awards he bagged, get Issa Hayatou out of dt office and see if he wuld have won more than 1. NO MIDFIELDER LIKE AUSTIN JAY JAY so far

yaya is the most complete midfilder to come out of Africa, he can attack, dribble, technique, shoot, dribble the guy can function as a dm, cm, am, simply the best ever midfilder to come out of Africa. while okocha can dribble, technique and shoot his defensive qualities is not as good as yaya. yaya is Africa best ever midfilder and is one nations cup away from being top 3 Africa best player of all time. u no even compare the guy with abedi na jj. my guy you are a learner

I don't even think u can really compare them , liv say we be Nigerians ,sentiment will keep clouding our judgement . Okocha never won a recognized trophy in his club career , never played for a major European team ( only PSG , which was not a super power that time and he wasn't even a first team player) FIFA will recognize yaya ahead of jayjay any day anytime . Okocha never even won African best player . Pls lets even face it , what was his direct contribution to any team ( I dint say he ain't got super talent and skill ) but did he directly win any trophy for club and country? He always came close for naija but never won anything apart from Tunisia 94 of which he wasn't in d 1st team . Compare yaya with eto Abeg

It hurts to admit, but yaya toure is better.Although okocha had more talent due to his incredible technique and superb dribbling, he was interested in showboating instead of performing.Yaya is the complete midfielder.

MICHAEL ESSIEN IS BETTER THAN ALL THESE CHAPS

cr7lomo:
I don't even think u can really compare them , liv say we be Nigerians ,sentiment will keep clouding our judgement . Okocha never won a recognized trophy in his club career , never played for a major European team ( only PSG , which was not a super power that time and he wasn't even a first team player) FIFA will recognize yaya ahead of jayjay any day anytime . Okocha never even won African best player . Pls lets even face it , what was his direct contribution to any team ( I dint say he ain't got super talent and skill ) but did he directly win any trophy for club and country? He always came close for naija but never won anything apart from Tunisia 94 of which he wasn't in d 1st team . Compare yaya with eto Abeg

1. Okocha never won a recognized trophy in his club career

you have a short memory...... he won 1994 nations cup and atlanta 96 olympics

2. never played for a major European team
what do you call PSG? they have always been big

3.FIFA will recognize yaya ahead of jayjay any day anytime .

my guy do you know a man called RONALDINHO. just in cas he was once world best and he said all he learnt was from okocha in PSG and he won world best
dont forget even pele named Okocha as the one of the african on his 125 living football legent

4.Okocha never even won African best player .

in 1993 and 1994 etoo won the award ahead of okocha which every one saw as a roberry cos he should have won one of the award
he went to be the only african to win the BBC African footballer back to back. note the only african to have done that

also in 1998 he should have won it, again it was given to Mustapher hadgi who even confess he is surprise to win it ahead of Okocha

5. Pls lets even face it , what was his direct contribution to any team

oboy am surprise at this question, ask sam allaydice okocha single handedly did for bolton wonderes what no other player has don the history of the club. and for nigeria except you are from niger then you will not know

guy ask hayato he just confessed and by the way the Francophone countries always prefer thierfrench speaking guys

just incase