I remembered when Victor Osimhen abused Victor Ikpeba, because Ikpeba accused him of wasting the chanced he should have scored in the world cup play off against Ghana, I mentioned in some of the shows I attended that time, he should be santioned and be made to pay fine and apologize to Ikpeba.
I was so shocked today, when I saw the video where he was lashing out at Finidi on Instagram, using fowl languages, calling Finidi by name, he didn’t say, coach Finidi, uncle Finidi, Mr Finidi, but he called him by name. Such behavior is highly condemnable, and should not go unpunished. Finidi can born Osimhen, what Finidi achieved in football, Osimhen can never achieve it, Finidi help Nigeria qualify for world cup twice and play in world cup twice, Osimhen couldn’t help Nigeria qualify for world cup and has not played in world cup. Finidi won champion’s league with Ajax, Osimhen is yet to win it, Finidi is an AFCON winner, Osimhen has not achieved that. Finidi was the best number 7 in his days, Osimhen is not the best number 9 currently. As current African footballer of the year, he is an ambassador of Africa as a whole, not just Nigeria, therefore someone like him must not be seen with such dirty action.
Now coming to the matter, Finidi shouldn’t have mentioned name, he should have talked generally, but I understand his frustration. But come to think of it, their is no lie in what Finidi said about Osimhen, since Osimhen has become the team’s number one striker, he has been selecting matches he will play, in the last 5 years, most of the friendly matches the super eagles have played, Osimhen has always opted out, anyone who is doubting should go and research, I stand to be challenged and corrected. He will claim he is injured, but immediately after the friendly, you will see him playing in Napoli.
We all remember how he colluded with his club to opt out of AFCON 2 years ago, up till today, the reason for opting out is not clear.
This is always the problem with so many Nigerian players, most expecially those that sees themselves as the most important players in the team, Austin Okocha and Kanu Nwakwo too were selecting matches they will play in their own time, that is why Nigeria could not qualify for world cup in 2006, because they were not honouring invitation for world cup qualifiers matches away from home, I remember when a journalist asked Okocha why he didn’t honour a particular match, he responded by saying he is not a machine.
Mikel Obi and Victor Moses too did the same thing, I remembered Stephen Keshi dealt with Mikel Obi because of that, by not inviting him for close to a year, it was the last qualifying match for 2013 AFCON that he invited him again, and ever since, Mikel did not try that again.
Obafemi Martins was doing same thing, Nigeria almost not qualify for 2010 world cup, because Martins and some players were not honouring away matches, that was the reason Amodu shuaibu wanted to drop him for 2010 AFCON in Angola, if not for the public outcry and the intervention of the NFF, Amodu would have dropped him. Even when they got to Angola, Amodu put him on the bench, and was using Yakubu Ayegbeni, Ozase Odewenge and Chinedu Obasi upfront, martins will only come in at the tail end of the match.
We can go on and on, it’s a problem with our players, they are arrogant, they feel too big, they fill uncontrollable.
My suggestion is that, henceforth, let their be a code of conduct for every members of the team and the technical crew about dos and donts, that anyone who er, anyone who does contrary will be made to face sanction.
Back to Osimhen, he must be disciplined, he must be ban for sometime from the team and must be made to apologize to Finidi and Ikpeb
Original author unknown