Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Amaju Pinnick has revealed he contacted Victor Osimhen following the Napoli striker’s recent outburst against Finidi George, Soccernet.ng reports.
Osimhen took to social media to blast former Super Eagles coach Finidi for questioning his commitment to the national team after injury forced him out of Nigeria’s World Cup qualifiers.
In Osimhen’s absence, Nigeria recorded two disappointing results against South Africa and the Benin Republic, which ultimately cost Finidi his job.
While defending himself, Osimhen aimed disrespectful rants at Finidi, one of Nigeria’s greatest footballers in history.
Pinnick, who was in charge of the NFF when Osimhen made his breakthrough with the Golden Eaglets at the FIFA U17 World Cup, has disclosed that he rebuked the reigning CAF Africa Footballer of the Year for his actions.
The football administrator, making clear that it was an unfortunate incident, also revealed that Osimhen has shown remorse for that ‘moment of madness’.
“Let me dwell on Osimhen’s case. It was quite unfortunate,” Pinnick told Arise TV.
“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.”
Osimhen has not featured in any of Nigeria’s four qualifying matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
During the qualifying campaign for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, Osimhen finished as the continent’s top goalscorer with ten goals.