Amaju Pinnick: Osimhen is humble with me — Ex-Nff president addresses Finidi rant

Former NFF president Amaju Pinnick addressed Victor Osimhen's disrespectful rant at Finidi George. The former football administrator tagged Osimhen's fit of rage as a moment of indiscretion rather than an indication of his character.

In the final moments of Finidi's short stint as Super Eagles coach, an unverified report surfaced, suggesting the former Real Betis winger threw Osimhen under the bus in his interview with the NFF.

Finidi's exit came after failing to pick up a win in two crucial World Cup qualifier games. Osimhen was uninvolved in both matches against South Africa and Benin Republic due to an injury and the report claimed Finidi questioned the Napoli striker’s commitment to the national team.

Osimhen reacted angrily and took to Instagram to rant, saying that he no longer respected the 53-year-old, amongst other strongly worded comments. 

Osimhen's rant attracted criticism from key figures in the Nigerian sporting scene, and in an interview with Arise TV, Pinnick, who was the NFF president from 2014–2022, weighed in on the issue. 

“Let me dwell on Osimhen’s case. It was quite unfortunate,” Pinnick told the TV station. 

“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.”

The 53-year-old stressed that he had a good relationship with Osimhen, and that the striker was humble, but he acknowledged the ‘madness’ that the rant was.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Osimhen is inching closer to a move away from Napoli, with Paris Saint-Germain picking up the pace in their pursuit of him.