Nigeria’s Sports Minister, John Enoh, emphasized that addressing Napoli striker Victor Osimhen’s recent comments about former Super Eagles coach Finidi George is not the primary focus for the Nigeria Football Federation at the moment.
Speaking on Eagle7 FM Radio on Sunday about the situation involving two African Player of the Year winners, Enoh underscored the importance for the NFF to concentrate on more urgent matters affecting Nigerian football instead of being distracted by the Osimhen-Finidi controversy.
“There has been a plethora of opinions on this. Osimhen is a Trojan for Nigeria, but it was a low,”Enoh said.
“I told the NFF not to make a pronouncement on this before they have engaged Osimhen. This is so especially because these are not the best of times for Nigerian football, and we have to manage a lot of things. The NFF have to be focused and not be distracted.”
The controversy started when allegations surfaced that Finidi questioned Osimhen’s dedication to the national team following the striker’s absence from the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin Republic.
Reportedly, Finidi mentioned that he couldn’t plead with Osimhen to participate after the player withdrew due to injury.
In response, Osimhen used social media to assert that he had informed Finidi about his injury and had volunteered to join the team in camp without playing, an offer which the former coach declined.
Osimhen expressed his frustration, stating, “I knew things like these would happen and that’s why I have the videos and screenshots of when I called Finidi while I was with the doctor in Germany.
“I asked Finidi George to allow me to stay with the players in the camp, but Finidi asked me not to bother and that I should stay with my family. I’m not addressing anything, everybody knows I play my heart out whenever I’m playing for the club or national team. I’ll share the screenshot and videos of my conversation with Finidi for the sake of those believing what Finidi said.”
Despite the backlash he has received after his comments on social media, Osimhen has not apologized, and ex-Eagles coach Finidi has denied making such comments about the 25-year-old.