Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Pinnick has described Victor Osimhen’s rant against former Super Eagles head coach Finidi George as “a moment of madness”.

In June, Osimhen lashed out at Finidi for reportedly questioning his commitment to the Super Eagles after the Napoli striker pulled out of Super Eagles’ 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying fixtures against South Africa and the Benin Republic in June due to injury.

Pinnick, who now works as a FIFA Executive Committee member, said it was unfortunate Osimhen went that far to express his anger.

“Let me dwell on Osimhen’s case. It was quite unfortunate. 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,” Pinnick said on Arise TV.

 

“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 and other players should accord their coaches, their leaders some appreciable level of respect.”