By Segun Oye
More Nigerians have been lashing out at Victor Ikpeba on their social media pages for criticizing Napoli striker, Victor Osimhen’s performance in the last 2022 world cup playoff that gave Ghana ticket to Qatar on away goal rule, Promptnewsonline reports.
Ikpeba, popularly called ‘Prince of Monaco’, had while speaking on Supersport criticized Osimhen, 23, for using bicycle kick skills that denied Nigeria goals in the match against Ghana.
“Victor Osimhen is a good player but is not yet a finished article, forget he’s playing for Napoli. Some of those crosses he might have controlled instead of trying to do a bicycle kick.
“He’s still a young player but I hope that he can improve where he is in Napoli and help the national team in the future. He needs to understand when to play the ball and when to play bicycle kicks,” Ikpeba had said.
Victor Osimhen did not take the criticism lightly as he took to his Instagram page @victorosimhen9 to say “I go continue dey do am, no be that pundit go tell me wetin to do.“ while reacting to Super Falcosn star, @asisat_oshoala, who wrote “Werey dem say make u no dey do bicycle kick.”
One twitter user @mohjustice wrote: Victor Ikpeba calling victor osimhen out over his performance against Ghana… how could Nigerians football history slips away from our memory? Ikpeba once disappointed us and no one called him out.”
Another user @lashking_mp wrote: Victor Ikpeba achievement isn’t the reason why Victor Osimhen is where he is today, he also worked hard to get there, so all these legends too should show respect for these young players and they will be respected…. Thank you.”
Engr. Ameenu Datti, writing @SonOfY says: “The hypocrisy is quite loud. That young boy was the hardest-working Nigerian player on the pitch. A proof of it was show his name was the only chanted name during the entire 90mins. Keep your head up @victorosimhen9 we are proud of you.’
Oluwafemi @_oribz wrote: “The same Victor Osimhen who gave everything in him to get the to qualify for Qatar is who he singled out for criticism. How about the absolutely clueless manager and the silly mistake of the GK that gave Ghana the advantage?
However, Sunny Wells begged to disagree with those lashing out at Ikpeba, saying the criticism was quite in order.
He wrote via @AhakwenmonS “As a legend, Victor Ikpeba has a legit right to criticize any player… That’s his job as a football pundit.”
