Former African Footballer of the Year Victor Ikpeba has revisited the furore that was caused by the comments he made about Napoli striker Victor Osimhen in the aftermath of Nigeria's failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.
Ikpeba, Monaco's all-time top scorer in European competitions with 14 goals, criticized the Super Eagles number nine for attempting to score a
spectacular goal during the World Cup playoff against Ghana at the
National Stadium in Abuja.
Ikpeba felt that Osimhen should have controlled the ball first
before hitting target rather than taking bicycle kicks that yielded no
results.
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In the wake of those comments by Ikpeba, Osimhen in partnership
with Barcelona Femeni attacker Asisat Oshoala went on a social media
rampage, aiming digs at the 1996 Olympics gold medalist.
Ikpeba has reiterated that Osimhen is still not the finished article and advised the striker to emulate humble Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.
"I have seen the timeline of what happened, I can be the father to the young Victor, I have seen Victor before, very modest good young lad," Ikpeba said in a telephone conversation with Channels TV Sunday Sports on Sunday afternoon.
"A lot of things came to play, sometimes players can take decisions because of emotions and respond so I've really moved on.
"Victor is one of those players that has a lot of character. He still needs to grow up, he's not yet the finished article, he's going to be one of our top players in the future but he needs to humble himself and try to learn.
"It's a learning process, he knows how many years it took him to be in Napoli so my only advice to him is to look at the way the likes of Salah, Mane carry themselves and concentrate on his footballing career."
"A lot of things came to play, sometimes players can take decisions because of emotions and respond so I've really moved on.
"Victor is one of those players that has a lot of character. He still needs to grow up, he's not yet the finished article, he's going to be one of our top players in the future but he needs to humble himself and try to learn.
"It's a learning process, he knows how many years it took him to be in Napoli so my only advice to him is to look at the way the likes of Salah, Mane carry themselves and concentrate on his footballing career."
Osimhen started and was in action for 83 minutes as Napoli lost ground in the Italian Serie A title race after a 1-1 draw with AS Roma at the Diego Maradona Stadium on Monday evening.
Ifeanyi Emmanuel
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