Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, said he was disappointed with Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen over his online rant against Finidi George.
In the week Finidi George decided to resign as Super Eagles head coach in June, barely two months after his appointment, Victor Osimhen stunned the football world when he decided to lash out at the coach.
The 25-year-old striker said he had lost his respect for Finidi because the coach told reporters that he wouldn’t force the Napoli star to play for the Super Eagles.
Recall that Finidi reportedly made this statement when Osimhen couldn’t make it to the national team for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against South Africa, which ended in a draw and against Benin Republic, which ended in a defeat for Nigeria.
In his Instagram live session, Osimhen explained that he had told Finidi George ahead of the game that he wasn’t fit for the game and even volunteered to join the Super Eagles in camp as a source of motivation.
However, the reigning Africa Player of the Year winner said Finidi urged him to stay back and work on his recovery. Hence, Victor Osimhen was infuriated to hear that the coach said he wouldn’t force him to play for Nigeria.
In an interview with Arise TV, Amaju Pinnick said: “Let me dwell on Osimhen’s case. It was quite unfortunate. That ranting was so unfortunate. I put a call through to Osimhen and I made him understand that I didn’t like what he did and he spoke to me with remorse. And I told him to channel his remorse to the appropriate quarters.
“Osimhen has always come to me, we discovered Osimhen. It was during my first tenure. In fact, that was the first trophy I won as the president of NFF when he led us to Chile and he was the highest goal scorer.
“I don’t know what went wrong. It was just a moment of madness so to speak. But, that is not the Osimhen that I know. Osimhen comes to me as a very humble boy, I don’t know others and we have maintained that relationship.”
