Legendary France football star Zinedine Zidane has been voted by fans as a better dribbler than former Super Eagles midfield maestro Austin Okocha, Completesports.com reports.
Zidane, who is the current coach of Real Madrid eliminated Okocha in the Round of 32 stage of RMC Sports’ hunt for football’s top dribbling genius.
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In the votes casted, Zidane got 77% per cent while Okocha has 23 per cent.
Okocha is now out of the running for the top spot in the soon-to-be-released RMC’s football-focused film tagged ‘Dribbleurs’ later this month.
During his playing career Okocha won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and was a member of the U-23 Eagles that won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Okocha represented Nigeria at three FIFA World Cups in USA 1994, France 1998 and Korea/Japan 2002.
For Zidane, he won the France 1998 World Cup amd helped the European country to the 2000 European Championship.
At Madrid he won the Laliga and UEFA Champions League.
And as coach of Madrid, the three-time FIFA Player of the Year led the Spanish giants to three consecutive Champions League titles.
Earlier decided is the tie between ex-Barcelona ace Ronaldinho and Ajax midfielder Hakim Ziyech, with the Brazilian legend claiming 90% of the votes.
In other votes, Dutch legend Arjen Robben also floored Juventus and Brazilian winger Douglas Costa, Barcelona and Dutch legend Johan Cruyff beat Senegal and Liverpool star forward Sadio Mane.
Also Argentina genius, Diego Maradona was picked ahead of iconic Brazilian Garrincha, while Lionel Messi also despatched former Dutch and Arsenal great Dennis Bergkamp.
PSG’s Neymar got the better of Englishman Dele Alli just as Cristiano Ronaldo saw off Rivaldo.
Other top football stars listed in the contest are Brazilian legend Pele, former Bayern Munich and France exciting forward Franck Ribery, Kylian Mbappe, Denilson, Kaka, Eden Hazard among others.
Meanwhile, Okocha and Mane elimination leaves Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez as the only African through to the next phase of the race, with the Algerian knocking Manchester United great George Best.
Egypt’s Mohamed Salah will face legendary Brazilian forward Ronaldo in the last face-off of the first round.
By James Agberebi
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COMMENTS
this nonsense to me.
I swear real nonsense,
Which yeye fans, absolute rubbish!!
This exercise is flawed. The pairings are not ok. The players should have been seeded, and then the top paired with the bottom. Imagine Mane being matched with Cruyff, while Saint Maxim is against Ben Arfa. Mane is a better dribbler than these two, but Mane is out while one of these will advance!
In my opinion, the greatest dribblers/entertainers the world has ever seen are Ronaldinho and Okocha. I can’t tell who is first or second between these two. Maradona comes a close third. And fourth would be Cruyff. These guys are head and shoulders above everybody else.
N.B. – To say Zidane is a better dribbler than Okocha is the joke of the year. Zidane was maybe a better player, a better AM, and definitely more successful in his career, but when it comes to dribbling and ball artistry, Okocha edges him. They were both very good, but Okocha was just ridiculous.
You won’t blame them cos nigeria fans are so dull, I posted a fifa website FIFAINDEX.com for nigerians to go like and support our players template, one lady abi guy called glory for this forum start attacking me , guy if you want nigeria players past or present to be recognise pls visit FIFAINDEX.COM and like and commend kn their template.
Ekpe, the Glory I know is a good guy. You guys probably misunderstood each other.
Your right bro, I just hope we visit the site
Thanks @ Pompeii, for great understanding.. Every egg has a shell just some are rotten. I look not at the shell but see the good or rotten content.
Hahahaha..@ Ekpe, I m a proper man to THe Glory Of the Almighty High… Rastafarhigh.high, high, high… Yes I attacked that idea n will always attack the idea n definitely not you as a person. We must understand that every evil that’s tomenting man, I n I today, all started good.. So we must be able to spot great danger hidden in so called good ideas before they get hatched. I tell you the truth, that idea has so many evil intentions hidden in it. It will surely do more harm than good. I CARE LESS ABOUT RATING, COS ITS ALL POLITICAL. EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN IDEA OF GOOD PLAYER, SO RATING PLAYERS IS ABSOLUTE RUBBISH, RUBBISH, N FAT ASS RUBBISH.
Please visit and like and comment on thier template
For the benefit of individuals who for some reason never got the opportunity to watch Jay Jay in action. A non Nigerian asked the question in this video –
WAS THIS PLAYER MORE SKILLFUL THAN RONALDINHO?
In my opinion, I can’t decide between the two. Judge for yourself……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ld-OqGJrK0
We did not know what we had when Jay Jay was playing for us. The flamboyance, the confident, almost arrogant attitude on the ball, the close control, ball juggling skills, the ability to flawlessly and seemingly effortlessly execute difficult moves like the rabona, the elastico, little flicks and carresses here and there, mesmerizing opponents and even his own team mates. Some might argue that with all this ability, there was not much end product. That was true in his younger days. But as he grew older, that changed. The skill and flair began to be accompanied by abundant end product, in the form of assists and goals….wonderful goals.
We won one Afcon and one Olympic gold with Jay Jay. If our football was better organized, if we were more savvy on how to use a player of this magnitude, perhaps we could have achieved a lot more.
The great jayjay. The home leopard of the game. The man who,s patrotism made is ondisputable. You have given all to us and we will always remember you. I love u so much during your playing days. I victory was mine and your loss aswell. Ur destiny was fulfilled as to loved by all of the game lovers but not bounded with self titles. I have learnt to live with it and never be disapointed anymore. Midfield commando.king jayjay okocha
In terms of pure dribbling skill, Okocha had it in abundance and was up there with the best in the world. The problem comes when you compare national icons. Zidane had more global appeal, not just in France, but also in Algeria and the fact that he won the world cup must have helped sway some of the undecided.
Having said that, Okocha wowed and frustrated in equal proportion. I watched him live in Wembley stadium against England at the start of his national career, and I also watched him live in Dublin when we played Republic of Ireland at the end of his career.
And yes, end product. Okocha would dribble and dribble, and at the end he was just as likely to hit the corner flag as he would score a fantastic goal.
He’s a national icon and is revered by many if not most Nigerians who have seen him play, heck even many African counties were awed by him, the problem is, apart from Nigeria, England, Germany, Turkey and France where he played, not many can truly say he was better in dribbling than Zidane and 90% of the French will vote for their own.
Nigerians are even divided between Okocha and Kanu, talk less Zinedine
One of the best dribblers of all time, unfortunately he came from a wrong country. Hagi, Stoickov, Baggio,Zidane,,Raul, Del Piero, Luis figo, all these players are not better than Okocha.
Pa-jay,, France 98..with spray-hair was fantastic!
Yes, his from a wrong country
What baffles me was that the NFF could not ensure he won the CAF player of the year, despite the huge financial support from Nigeria. Now, don’t even tell me that the government is supposed to hands off such contests. ……Or I’ll ask you to grab your dictionary and look up the meaning of the word “lobby.”
Common guys its not enough to our country wrong becos of football. Fifa awards cannot be compared to the love of over 500milion football fans across africa and the rest of the. Beside if he wasnt a nigerian he couldnt have bin loved by most of us here. Jayjay is nigerian and that makes it more interesting. Fifa award shouldnt be over rated becos there are always questionable decisions. For example italians will never respect canavaro ahead of del piero, pirlo,totti,roberto baggio. But these guys dont have the so called fifa award and canavaro have it. Wat about michael owen he has ballon d oro but cannever be compared to david backamp in the mind of the britsh football fans. Please let us not put our nation down before mare organised awards of Fifa. Pele has giving brazil no 10 to okocha even wen he is Nigerian. Eto has said he is the greatest midfielder even wen he is not from cameroun. Let us live to accept great jayjay in is making
I mean call our country wrong country