Osimhen’s Ambition to Play against Juventus Puts Napoli, NFF at LoggerHead

AFCON 2021

Femi Solaja with agency report

The ambition of Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen, to play in the crucial Serie A to for Napoli against former champions, Juventus early next year has pitched the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), against the Italian side as the final build up to AFCON begins today in Abuja.

Most of the invited players are getting ready for the start of the training tonight in Abuja with only Premier League players allowed to join the rest in the first week of January in accordance with agreement reached between the European clubs and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the premier soccer show peace which starts in Cameroon from January 9th.

ThisDay check last night indicated that Osimhen arrived Abuja late last week for yelutide and then report to camp today but the player has other agenda, he wants to help his club role back to the summit of the table and wants to be part of the action against the Biaconeri side on January 6th and then join the rest of the team in Garoura same night via chartered flight.

According to top Italian blog, Tuttusports.com, the quest of the Nigerian star is generating tension between the club and NFF but the club hopes to reach an agreement with the Glasshouse tomorrow evening in their bid to delay the striker much longer than the stipulated period of time.

“Napoli are in the defensive in the negotiation with Nigeria football house owning to the fact that the initial arrangement was to allow the Italian doctor confirm the fitness level of the Nigerian forward before he can be released to join the African football party in Cameroon.

“The club is also aware that Osimhen is obsessed at playing for his country and will not want to hurt his feelings and are delighted that he also wants to lift Napoli back to the top of the league in Italy,” it staed.

The blog also quoted Sky Sports that the player is getting closer to fitness and he will undergo a control scan tomorrow (December 31st) from Professor Gianpaolo Tartaro who operated him the first time.

“The Nigerian has a dream to play on January 6th against Juventus before leaving for African Cup of Nations. Going by the initial agreement, Osimhen is scheduled for January 3rd but Napoli hopes to find an agreement with Nigerian federation to temporarily detain the player in Italy, in order to make him play against Biaconeri and then let him leave for the cup,” Tuttusports.com stated last night.

Reports in Abuja hinted that the player ‘sneaked’ into the country on Friday to hold talks with the NFF officials and more importantly, the interim coach of the team, Austin Eguavoen on the possibly for a delay in his joining the team late in Cameroon.

In another development, one of Super Eagles opponent in Group D, Sudan, landed in Yaounde, Cameroon yesterday and will head to the Northern cty of Garuora this morning.

The Sudanese resumed closed camping exercises immediately after they returned from the Arab World cup where they lost all their group matches.

Their performance in the Arab World cup led to the sacking of former coach Hubert Velud and the appointment of new manager to take charge of the team.

Various warm-up matches have been lined up for the team in order to put them in shape for the biennial competition.

Sudan will face Guinea Bissau in their opening group match before facing Super Eagles of Nigeria and then Pharaoh of Egypt.