By Osasu Obayiuwana BBC Sport

Pele says he has great admiration for Okocha's skills

There is never a moment when Edson Arantes Do Nascimento - the man better known as Pele - fails to get the attention of the global media when he so desires.

Holding court at the press conference in central London which revealed Fifa's list of the greatest living players - as selected by him - the sport's best known exponent admitted he had a near impossible task selecting his final list.

"It was really tough [to make my choices] and I am aware that not everyone will agree with my selection," the "King of Football" told us at the Royal Academy of Art.

"If you ask each person here to make their own list, I know that it will be different," Pele said.

Pele was my idol Nigeria's Jay-Jay Okocha

The choice of the five African players that made the list of 125 players - Cameroon's Roger Milla, Nigeria's Jay-Jay Okocha, Senegal's El Hadji Diouf, Liberia's George Weah and Ghana's Abedi 'Pele' Ayew, betrayed his love for strikers and creative players.

Pele's selection of namesake Ayew and Okocha - players who have followed the Brazilian in wearing the number 10 shirt he made famous - gave me the chance to tease the legend that he had a bias for players that have tried to emulate him.

"No, no, no," Pele began laughing as he defended his choices to BBC Sport.

"I did not pick Abedi because he named himself after me or because Okocha wore the number 10 shirt.

"I admire these players because of the special skill they have shown. I believe in beautiful football and these players have shown themselves to be great players.

"This was why I picked them for this list. It is just a good coincidence that Abedi named himself after me," he said.

Boyhood hero

Okocha has long been a fan of Pele and admitted that the legend's decision to include him on the Fifa list is beyond his "wildest dreams."

Okocha with his wife Nkechi at the Fifa awards in London

In an interview given after he joined Paris St Germain from Turkish club Fenerbahce in 1998, the Nigeria captain told me of his adoration for the man who scored over 1,000 goals in his professional career.

"Pele was my idol. He is the greatest football player [of all time] and I know that it is impossible for me to achieve that goal [of being the best player in the world].

"But when you have such a high dream [of following his footsteps] and you work towards it, what you achieve could be good enough for you," he said at the time.

After several years of narrowly losing out on winning personal awards, Okocha admits that 2004 has pleasantly ended a drought that he thought would never end.

Scorer of the 1,000th Cup of Nations goal and MVP award winner at Tunisia 2004, not to mention his selection as the BBC African Footballer of the Year has made him confident that he will clinch the 2003 Caf African Footballer of the Year prize.

Okocha lost out to Morocco's Mustapha Hadji in 1998 but he is confident that his time has finally come.

"I think I've done enough to deserve it this time," he insists.

"I believe that If I do not win it this time, I may never win it again, so hopefully it is my turn [to win] now."