Mikel Obi has weighed in on the sensitive issue between Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen, and the former Super Eagles coach, Finidi George. In an interview granted recently, he stated that Osimhen shouldn’t be blamed for his public rant against the coach because he understands why he did that.
You would recall that things got heated between Osimhen and his coach, Finidi, leading the Galatasaray forward player to publicly rain abusive words on the coach all over social media, in a tone that reeked of pure disrespect.
Many Nigerians were divided between standing with Osimhen or his coach. Some felt that the coach deserved the smoke pellets his celebrity player was shooting toward him. Others felt that no matter what, Victor Osimhen should have communicated his displeasure with the highest decorum and respect towards Finidi because of his age.
Well, what do former Super Eagle legends think of the ugly fracas?
Mikel Obi bluntly believes that Osimhen is well within his rights to lash out at the elderly Finidi because of how he was treated. He excused Osimhen’s behavior by saying that he only thought his coach wasn’t fair by not protecting him from undue criticisms of Nigerian football enthusiasts when the national team lost their match.
The Super Eagles legend went further to accuse Finidi of throwing Osimhen under the bus at the time he needed him the most. Here are his exact words on the Obionepodcast:
“Every time I speak to him [Osimhen], he’s very humble and respects people. As I said, respect is reciprocal. I respect you, you respect me. I think this situation with the Nigerian coach, where he blew out, he just felt it wasn’t fair because the manager didn’t protect him, Mikel said on Obionepodcast.“
“He said he had a conversation with the manager, everything was recorded, and the manager just threw him under the bus.“
“He was really pissed off, so he came out to defend himself. Maybe the way he did it wasn’t the best, but he had the right to speak out. I have nothing against Victor [Osimhen] for that, and knowing your worth isn’t arrogance.”
