Osasu Obayiuwana BBC Sport, Bolton

It was fantastic to present this award to him Bolton manager Sam Allardyce

Nigeria and Bolton captain Austin 'Jay-Jay' Okocha received his 2004 BBC African Footballer of the Year trophy at Bolton's Reebok stadium on Saturday.

Okocha, who is the first player to retain the award, after winning it in 2003, received the trophy from Sam Allardyce, Bolton's manager, before their Premiership game against Fulham.

"It was fantastic to present this award to him," Allardyce told BBC Sport.

"El-Hadji Diouf has won the [Caf] African Player of the Year twice and so has Jay-Jay (the BBC version)."

"It's a privilege to have players of this quality playing at Bolton Wanderers."

The midfielder beat Cameroon and Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o Fils and fellow Nigerian Obafemi Martins, a forward with Italy's Internazionale, in a poll of readers of the BBC's African football website and listeners of Fast Track, the African sport programme on the BBC World Service.

The Nigeria captain, who expressed his appreciation to football fans for making him the first player to retain the title, said winning the award for the second time was a major moment in his career.

"I appreciate this one more because it's been more difficult to retain the award and I've put in a lot of hard work to see that I retain it.

"I'm very happy that I accomplished it and I appreciate all the people who voted for me," Okocha told BBC Sport.

"They (the fans) should keep on listening to the BBC. It's great.

"I'm a BBC fan now and will get my family to listen to the BBC even more."

"It goes a long way [to make up for losing out on the Caf version of the award].

"I think Eto'o deserved his title and I deserved mine."

Allardyce presented the trophy in the presence of Osasu Obayiuwana and Farayi Mungazi, journalists with the BBC World Service, who also manage the African football website.