Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Melvin Amaju Pinnick has spoken out once again in support of Lille Metropole of France striker, Victor Osimhen to lead the Super Eagles’ attack for a very long time to come, and provide no reason for anyone to worry about their inability to get Chelsea of England sensation, Tammy Abraham to commit himself to the team.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, while Pinnick tried all he could to get Abraham to switch allegiance from England to Nigeria, even working through his long-standing relationship with the striker’s father, the NFF boss admitted his efforts did not pay off, but he says Osimhen is even a better player on the pitch.
Indeed, both strikers have rained goals with their respective clubs in England and France, even getting to score on either side of the pitch when their two teams met in the UEFA Champions League, but Pinnick opined that Osimhen is a better striker than Abraham.
Although the Nigerian football top shot insists he has no misgivings against Abraham, and his Chelsea pal, Fikayo Tomori for refusing to switch allegiance to Nigeria, and they are now both cap-tied to England, he admitted he will like those who preferred to play for the Eagles instead of their countries of birth to always do well and never give him reason to regret missing others.
This comes at a point additional reports indicate that Osimhen is planning to hold talks with Lille in the coming days over his future, instead of looking at any of six clubs from the English Premier League that are said to be in the hunt for his signature.
The former VfL Wolfsburg of Germany and Sporting Charleroi of Belgium hitman is reportedly under the transfer radar of Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, such that Lille-based regional newspaper, La Voix du Nord has disclosed that Osimhen will hold talks with his club officials within the next two weeks over his future.
Lille’s club president, Gérard López has already expressed strong desire to keep Osimhen for at least one more season and does not plan to sell him unless they receive an astronomical offer, even as the 21-year-old attacker’s adviser also ruled out a move to AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Napoli and Juventus of Italy, all of which are also in the hunt for his signature.
All these permutations and amazing log of statistics picked by the product of Ultimate Strikers Football Academy of Ojota area of Lagos have ranked him among the most promising young attackers in Europe, especially as he hit 18 goals in all competitions for Lille during his first ever campaign in France, such that Pinnick is putting his trust in the Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup gold medalist, after missing out of luring Abraham to don Nigeria’s green-and-white jersey.
Pinnick told Plus TV Africa: “When we have people like Dessers that was even selected among the Eredivisie Team of the Season, I think we are happy and we are home. Prolific goals scorer. We have Osimhen that is doing very well, I cannot tell you that Tammy Abraham is better than Osimhen, it’s not possible.
“I’m very close to Tammy Abraham’s father, we grew up together, I’ve known him for over 40 years. I know the history of Tammy but if at the end of the day he decides to play for England we just wish him only good luck, Tomori too we wish him good luck.
“Let us watch and see the future of these players, we are happy and very contented with what we have right now, the only thing we need to do is consolidate and build a very strong Super Eagles that can contest for the qualifying rounds and World Cup proper, we have a very young team.”
