Nigerian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, Jay Jay Okocha, has denounced those he described as “people that can only hate and see nothing good in others,” urging them to treat others the way they want to be treated.
Okocha spoke in defence of Fulham Midfielder Alex Iwobi via his verified Instagram account on Tuesday.
Iwobi was in the national team that won the Silver medal at the just concluded 2023 AFCON in which Nigeria was trounced 2-1 by the host country Cote d’Ivoire. He had played for 79 minutes before he was substituted.
While the Super Eagles accepted their defeat with equanimity, Nigerian football fans refuse to be pacified, as they blame the team, their coach José Peseiro, and a handful of individual players for the national loss.
Iwobi was particularly singled out for his performance at the finals and the online troll has made him to delete all his Instagram posts, becoming incommunicado on the social media as a result.
However, among the sports people who have risen in Iwobi’s defence is Okocha, who had posted, “I pray for my country Nigeria and the people that can only hate and see nothing good in others, when effort counts for nothing, treat people the way you want them to treat you, all we have is this life is each other.
“We love you #alexanderiwobi and we keep going no matter what they say, the Lord is good all the time and we trust that his will be done in our lives amen.”
One Onyebuchi on Instagram, in response to Okocha, argues, “… Iwobi is not originally a midfielder, he played midfield position because he loves his country and because our coach couldn’t do his job to go to the grassroots and find us a number 10 player, man was playing a modernized 3-4-3 formation which is the old 5-4-1 formation, the same formation you used to win Ivory Coast the first time, and expected it work again, now truth is when you get possession often in games, it warms you up and boost your confidence, even the great Okocha won’t survive in such formation, the whole team spent cast majority of the time marking and not playing, that affects your confidence to hold the ball when you have possession because most times there is really no one to pass to, yes Iwobi made some error passes but was he the only one?
“The formation cost us the final, we needed to come out and play football like we always do, and yes we can’t always win it all, I don’t know how you guys blame Iwobi for our loss.”
The following were some of the comments that probably led to the footballer’s extreme action with his Instagram account:
He’s not the only one Nigerians as been criticizing why can’t they give everyone same treatment they’re giving iwobi? The truth is only Ekong and Nwabali played with their heart and soul for the national team. The rest are just big boys they don’t give a sh*t about the super…
— #The Lost soul (@Beekhaybee) February 13, 2024
You mean as a professional footballer, he can’t handle this??
Maguire get like 78 names, received bomb threat
But demanding more from Iwobi made him delete his posts, wow— ﾒ𝟶 (@h4beeeb) February 13, 2024
Iwobi should stop playing victim card here,…. And they should stop acting like we don’t matter, our money was used to feed and take care of them while they were in Ivory coast, we expected nothing but the best, we lost yet we are praising our goalkeeper, Osimhen, Ekong, etc……
— BadCharacter (@WrldEmperor) February 13, 2024
Nigerians should stop trolling him but honestly speaking he needs to do better. I was so pained watching him pass every single ball they gave him to our opponents, although he put so much energy into the game but he doesn’t lookout for the right player before giving out the ball.…
— Romanus (@Iam__Romanus) February 13, 2024
Iwobi’s performance during the AFCON was horrendous but as a professional footballer, he should know how to take criticisms and banter from fans as far as it’s not violent. Iwobi should be training hard to find form and not hop on podcast to nag like a woman
Hope this helps 💡
— Ebenz™️🧸 (@NobleBenz) February 13, 2024
Idk if Iwobi is a footballer or musician. All that dread pulling him back and it’s the reason he can’t even pass the ball.
Start music classes with Portable
— Steve Harvey (Parody) (@harveyparody) February 13, 2024
There are those in his defence, still:
Anyone who trolls, insults or makes negative comments on Iwobi is most likely a clueless football watcher. Our coach told a 10 to play as a 6 (or 4 for the older generation). My guy did a good job. Super proud of the Super Eagles. We’ll be back again pic.twitter.com/urNimG1WpE
— Retired Nigerian (@Dolarpo) February 12, 2024
Iwobi was asked at the press conference why he played deep in games & answered that it was based on Peseiro’s instructions while Peseiro was right there beside him.
He tried to explained at every given time but the h@te comments towards him are too much.
These players also…
— POOJA!!! (@PoojaMedia) February 12, 2024
Good to see you remaining positive last night despite the hateful comments online.
•
Ignore the haters my bro @alexiwobi, I dey behind you 👊🏾.
•#iwobi #nigeria #supereagles #afcon #afcon2023 pic.twitter.com/wAuxwdpBSa— Dr. Kelechi Anyikude (@KelechiAFC) February 12, 2024
This is getting out of hand Nigerian went to the page Instagram page of Iwobi to drop bad comments, and he had to delete all his pictures, and now some people have started pushing and reporting the page. Please let’s take it easy #AFCON2023Final is over.#creativity✍️✨ pic.twitter.com/ia1FD9cXhi
— Mr Creativity™️ 🇳🇬 (@nwaezivictor) February 12, 2024
