Jay-Jay Okocha recalls swapping Ronaldinho at PSG for Allardyce at Bolton

Okocha had a nomadic 18-year career across Germany, Turkey, France, Qatar and England, the last of which where he became an icon.

The Nigerian international appeared for Bolton 124 times, more than any side in his career, helping take Wanderers from just outside of the relegation zone to European football for the first time.

But his arrival at Bolton may flabbergast younger football fans, as Okocha moved from French side PSG, and the two club's fortunes couldn't be any more different in the present day.

However, back in 2002 the team's were more closely aligned, but Okocha still admits swapping Ronaldinho for Kevin Davies wasn't completely thought out.

"I will say that it's obvious that I didn't really do my research before signing for Bolton," he told talkSPORT Breakfast.

"As a football person, football comes first, not the city, not the lifestyle, but one thing that's clear is that the training ground was different, the attitude towards the games was different."

Okocha played the entirety of his Bolton career under Sam Allardyce, achieving huge success at the formerly-named Reebok Stadium.

The pair combined to take Bolton to sixth in the league in 2004-05, qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the first time.

But it wasn't an easy start, as Okocha admitted: "The mentality, the football style was difficult.

"It took me a while to really understand what Sam's philosophy was, but once I understood it, it was a bit easier then.

"After a while I realised that it's not really that kind of long ball person, but it was all he had then, the players that he had then he can only play direct football with them because they haven't got the ability to out-possess the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea or Man United, so he was playing to his strengths.

"But then when we came in and when he started bringing players with better quality in his squad, we started playing a bit more possession football."

Despite things progressing under Allardyce in what can be argued as his best spell in management, Okocha revealed the one thing that 'Big Sam' couldn't stand.

"One thing he kept to was fannying about in our own defense line," Okocha explained with a laugh.

"That gets him crazy so he made it clear to us that whatever we're bringing to the team, our own ideas should be in the final third and not in our own half.

"He's a big lad so you have to respect his opinion, you have to respect that, but it's always good to know what the managers want from you."

48-year-old Okocha is now living back in his native Nigeria following his retirement in 2008, and was questioned about one of his most iconic moments whilst playing in England.

During a game against Arsenal in the 2002-03 season, Bolton had come back from 2-0 down against the Gunners to level the score with six minutes to play.

Into stoppage time and holding the ball in the corner to secure a huge point, Okocha took audacity to a whole new level, rainbow flicking the ball over talkSPORT's very own Ray Parlour to get out of trouble.

"It was something that I perfected," the No.10 said.

"It's all about doing it at the right time and the right moment we were trying to see out the game, play out the draw, which was a massive result for us, and in that little corner that was always on for me."