Nigeria international and Napoli forward, Victor Osimhen has replied to criticism aimed at him by former Super Eagles striker Victor Ikpeba in the wake of the failure of the Nigerian team to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.
Speaking on the 1-1 draw against Ghana in Abuja which denied Nigeria the ticket using the away goal rule, Ikpeba said the Napoli forward should have done better with some of the half chances that came his way during the course of the game.
He faulted his decision to go for the spectacular by trying an overhead kick where a control would have been the perfect option in such situation.
“Victor Osimhen is a good player but is not yet a finished article, forget he’s playing for Napoli. Some of those crosses he might have controlled instead of trying to do a bicycle kick”, he said on Monday Night football.
“He’s a still a young player but I hope that he can improve where he is in Napoli and help the national team in the future. He needs to understand when to play the ball and when to play bicycle kicks”, he concluded.
Ikepba ended his take on the forward by praising him as the one player who was really up for it saying if Nigeria had three of his type on the pitch, they could easily have won the game.
The former Charleroi and Lille forward however appears not to be happy with his earlier criticism.
Responding via Instagram, he posted an insultive word in Yoruba aimed at the former Monaco forward tagged “Pundit Isonu” and as expected it generated reactions from his followers. It further made him to throw more insults at the former Africa Footballer of the year.
He went a step further by dropping an adage in Yoruba which literally translates to a white chicken does not realise his age. Basically an elder that doesn’t respect himself.
Photo – Justina Aniefok (Just Photos)
OJB SPORT 
Football has become a veritable instrument for national cohesion and unity in nations across the world over.Every country is doing everything they can ,through their National Football Administrations ,to prepare a strong football team not only to represent their country, but to win.However ,not every football team must win in a football match. And that being said, in the spirit of the game,take it as it comes,whether a looser or winner. Important thing is to prepare better for the next matches in the future.
A case study is Ghana. Their team did not win a single match in AFCON 2021. Today, they have knocked out Nigeria, that won all initial matches in AFCON 2021.
What I am driving at is this: We should borrow something to learn from the Ghana story or from others. We are not helping ourselves by spending months on end criticising players.We would do better by good and constructive planning on how to build stronger winning teams for the future.
There is no doubt that Nigeria has good players but note that having good players is one thing and building a strong team with the good players is entirely a different thing.
You need an experienced football coach, a,good tactician, a lot of training and not just running round and round the football pitch, you need lots of training equipments ,Psychology etc.
On the whole,there must be efforts made to shield the NFF from politicians, tribalism, favouritism and corruption and other such vices.
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