Okocha: born to be a star !

When young Augustine was born on August 14, 1973 in the then Nigerian East Central Region capital of Enugu, his parents lived in Artizan quarters, the living quarters of lower level staff of the Nigerian Railways Service. Born the fifth child of his parents, Augustine started off like most young African children by kicking any round object and playing in different types of kick-abouts and street games barefooted. Recalling his humble beginning, he once told the BBC, "We used to play with anything, with any round thing we could find, and whenever we managed to get hold of a ball, that was a bonus! I mean it was amazing!"

He was privileged to come from a football playing family. His two elder brothers played football to the highest level in Enugu as they grew up. According to Augustine, "football is in the blood! As early as I could remember, my eldest brother James was already a very popular boy in Enugu because of his skills. He used to play for his primary school, secondary school, street team, church team, and any team who could convince him to play for them. He was very skillful and people loved him for his skills and so everywhere he went people hailed him Jay-Jay which is short for James."

Unfortunately for some reason or the other, James could not make it to play professional football and so his fame did not exceed Enugu. After James, the other Okocha sons were Emmanuel and Augustine. As these ones started to blossom among football circles in Enugu, they continued to live in the shadows of big brother James. Emma sprouted up and rose into prominence, playing school team games, youth team games and finally joining Rangers International of Enugu, but despite going a step further than his big brother, he was still known in Enugu as Emma Jay-Jay as the tag Jay-Jay was used to identify him with the earlier big brother icon before him.

This was the same too for Augustine. As he grew up playing football, he was known as Austin Jay-Jay throughout Enugu and for the Jay-Jay siblings, that’s how the Jay-Jay tag stuck till to date.

Looking back on his family background, Austin spoke glowingly of his days growing up. "I grew up in an average family, with two brothers and four sisters. We didn’t have much, but we were happy and content and loved each other. We’ve always been a football family. My father and two older brothers both played and I was encouraged by them. I would play whenever I could - as soon as I finished school I was out there playing football.

"I always wanted to be a footballer, but I never thought I could be a professional. We were just playing for fun, and we never knew that it was possible to make a living from the game. Around when I was 13 I started playing for my school team - the first time I had played under a manager unlike the street teams where we just chose a line up and got on with it. I started realising that I had to keep to my position and play with some discipline. Before then I was just playing for the sake of playing."

Emma Jay-Jay soon started putting up scintillating displays for Enugu Rangers and this shot him to national prominence and he got invited to the Nigerian senior national team and started playing for the Green Eagles as an attacking midfielder, playing predominantly from the right side of midfield. He was in the young, inexperienced Nigerian team that Clemense Westerhof fielded in the Algiers ’90 African Nations Cup and scored the consolatory goal in Nigeria’s 5-1 spanking at the hands of the hosts Algeria.

To their credit, the young team rose to the challenge and soldiered their way on to the Final of the tournament where they lost 1-0 to the same host team that thrashed them in the opening game, which shows the level of improvement they had gone through during the term of the competition.

At about this time too, young Austin joined his big brother at Rangers from CCB of Enugu and from the word go, his silky skills shot him to prominence.

Playing in a central midfield role as a play-maker, his close ball control, body swerves, and masterful touch on the ball were evident on the few occasions the little boy was given an opportunity to play in the star studded and experienced Rangers squad.

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