The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations-winning striker Brown Ideye has blasted Victor Osimhen for the disparaging remarks the Napoli striker made about coach Finidi George last weekend.
A Nigerian website published an unconfirmed story alleging that Finidi stated that Osimhen did not want to participate in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, and he cannot beg the reigning African Footballer of the Year to represent the country.
In response to the allegations, Osimhen went on an extraordinary rant on Instagram Live, attacking Finidi and Super Eagles fans who had questioned his commitment to the Nigeria national team.
Ideye has placed the blame on Osimhen, emphasizing that the reigning African Footballer of the Year should not have publicly insulted a Super Eagles legend under any circumstances.
The former Olympiacos and Dynamo Kyiv star pointed out that the Super Eagles have underperformed in recent years due to the absence of a code of conduct to guide the national team players, unlike in his time.
He noted that the current Super Eagles players lack passion and spirit of nationalism, and are not desperate to defend the colours of Nigeria.
In an X space conversation hosted by The Naija Football Conference, Ideye said: “Coming to what happened between Coach Finidi and Victor, a lot of people asked me the best way to go when a coach calls you out.
“I said I’ll get my lawyer, we’ll do a write up on all my social media platforms and I will post it, and I will call the president of the Nigeria Football Federation, speak to him, call the coach.
“What Victor did is wrong, a lot of people can say he had to defend himself. What are you defending, who are you trying to explain to that you have an injury?
“You don’t need to explain to people that you have an injury that’s why you’re not in camp. Call the coach to see if he really said what he said before going out there to your social media platforms.”
Ideye disclosed that he reached out to Osimhen, advising him to apologize to Finidi following his Instagram Live outburst.
“I told him I’m disappointed in you but what you have to do is to go back to that social media and apologize to Nigerians and Finidi because no matter how we want to say it he’s a legend.
“It’s not like that, I’m waiting for Victor to apologize, he has to apologize. He just has to do it.”
According to Ideye, the absence of a genuine leader in the present Super Eagles team is evident and he also highlighted that with Joseph Yobo, Vincent Enyeama and John Obi Mikel, certain behaviors were simply off-limits during his time with the national team.
