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Victor Osimhen is the talisman, the attacking arrowhead of Nigeria’s Super Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, his three goals offering a warning to Algeria before Saturday’s quarter-final. But the focus on the 27 year old this week has fallen less on his talent and more on his behaviour.
Osimhen’s volatile temperament, displayed in a spat with his teammate Ademola Lookman during Monday’s 4-0 win against Mozambique, has grabbed the headlines. The Galatasaray striker scored twice to underline his world-class finishing but that has been rendered almost an afterthought.
Osimhen’s public remonstration with his attacking wingman, in frustration at what he regarded as selfishness that resulted in Nigeria failing to convert several chances, highlighted the combustible nature that has landed Osimhen in trouble on a number of occasions.
Those who have followed Osimhen’s social media accounts over the past four years will know that the self-described “coconut head” (a Nigerian expression he used on X in November 2021 for an obstinate person who speaks his mind, regardless of the consequences and counsel not to do so) does not shy away from confrontation.
Osimhen’s first major public spat was in 2022, with the former Nigeria and Monaco striker Victor Ikpeba, who won the Afcon in 1994, then Olympic gold and the African Footballer of the Year title in 1996. Ikpeba, a pundit for the pan-African television channel SuperSport, criticised Osimhen’s performance in the second leg of the 2022 World Cup playoff against Ghana, saying his series of overhead kicks, which he failed to convert, were a waste of goalscoring opportunities.
Osimhen did not take kindly to that and referred to Ikpeba on Instagram as “Pundit Isonu” (Isonu, in Nigeria’s Yoruba language, means useless). He was roundly criticised for showing Ikpeba a lack of respect. “I didn’t take what he said too seriously, even though I was not happy about it,” Ikpeba said. “Victor is a player that is young enough to be my son and I only want him to get better for Nigeria. I have the experience to advice him.”
An Osimhen spat with Finidi George in 2024, when the former Ajax and Real Betis winger was briefly Nigeria’s head coach, made many question his discipline and respect for authority and whether, despite his talent, he should remain with the Super Eagles.
Osimhen was so incensed by an alleged George statement questioning his commitment to Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign that he staged a live broadcast on Instagram, expressing deep anger. It became so vitriolic that the former Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo, who has served as a mentor to Osimhen, forced him to shut it down.
George denied making the statement that sparked Osimhen’s ire. “It’s quite unfortunate that he came up live and said those things,” he told the Nigeria Info radio station in 2024. “I sent him a message … from that point, I didn’t hear from him; he didn’t apologise …”
Nigeria’s coach, Éric Chelle, who has the task of ensuring Osimhen stays calm in Morocco, is firm that the spat with Lookman will be handled internally. “This is a question of my management,” he said. “What happened on the pitch will stay in the group. I don’t need to say what happened or what will happen.”
Emmanuel Amuneke, who coached Osimhen with Nigeria’s Under-17s and worked with him and Lookman as a Super Eagles assistant, believes “a quiet way” to resolve the issue is sensible. “Osimhen is one with a lot of character,” he told the Guardian. “It’s only when you come close to him that you can really understand him.
“It’s not that he is a bad person. He has the character of a person that wants to win. There are always issues within a team. We shouldn’t make too much out of it. I was privileged to know Lookman. He’s an open-minded person who likes to relate with people. We need different characters in our team in order to succeed.”
Super Eagles fans can only hope they can move on from Monday’s unsavoury incident as attention turns to the quarter-final in Marrakech. Osimhen’s determination to succeed at the Afcon is scarcely in doubt. At the previous tournament, in Côte d’Ivoire in 2024, he made clear that lifting Africa’s most prestigious trophy was a burning ambition. “I want to win something with this great squad,” he said. “I want to give Nigerians something that they will remember. I’m giving everything to come home with the trophy.”
Defeat by the hosts in the 2024 final has fuelled the ambition of a player who has made no bones about the fact that he is already victorious in life, having escaped the generational poverty that led him as a child to sell drinking water on the busy streets of Lagos to help his family survive.
“Football was the only way to get them out of poverty, so I really invested my time and my life into this job,” he said. “I am happy that it paid off. Getting my family out of poverty is my biggest win.”
For Nigeria to succeed they need Osimhen to display more than the prowess that made him, with Napoli in 2023, the first African player to become Serie A’s capocannoniere (top scorer). They also demand exemplary behaviour.
