Nigeria are their own worst enemies.
Everybody should be thrilled at their impressive performances at the Africa Cup of Nations and how they have responded to the disappointment of failing to qualify for a second successive World Cup. Monday evening’s 4-0 victory against Mozambique secured a place in the quarter-finals, and a potential reunion with the Democratic Republic of Congo, who beat them in November’s World Cup play-off final.
Instead, all the attention will fixate on a potential rift between Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman.
In the 25th minute against Mozambique, a sensational pass from Alex Iwobi led to Lookman assisting Osimhen. The centre-forward ran towards his team-mate and they slid together in celebration on the wet turf along with Bruno Onyemaechi. The trio collapsed in a heap, beaming with happiness. Just after half-time, Lookman jumped into Osimhen’s arms after setting him up again.
Ademola Lookman leaps into Victor Osimhen’s arms (Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images)
The competition’s joint-second-top goalscorers were running wild. Moments later, they started bickering with each other — Osimhen seemed to indicate that his team-mate was not passing to him — and everything changed.
Iwobi found Frank Onyeka in a pocket of space in front of Mozambique’s defence. Onyeka passed the ball to Lookman, who should have given it to Osimhen but instead tried to wriggle past a few defenders himself.
Then Onyemaechi and Akor Adams combined down the right wing and drove into the box instead of passing to the unmarked Osimhen.
Osimhen threw his hands up in the air in frustration.
Yet that was only the start. The 27-year-old completely snapped when Lookman went over to take a corner a few seconds later.
Osimhen squared up to his team-mate and started pointing in Lookman’s face.
Lookman seemed perplexed.
Captain Wilfred Ndidi tried to intervene but Osimhen slapped his arm aside. Bizarrely, it was Mozambique defender Reinildo who shoved him away. Osimhen signalled to the bench he wanted to come off and he was duly replaced by Moses Simon.
Nigeria were winning 3-0, but it was hard to tell from the way they were behaving. It was extraordinary that Osimhen became so frustrated that he effectively dictated the team’s tactics and substitutions. It is a concern that he was allowed to do so.
The drama did not end there.
At full time, Osimhen walked straight down the tunnel while the rest of the squad and coaching staff formed a huddle on the pitch. He left the dressing room before anybody else — he is usually the last to leave — and sat on the coach by himself. The rest of his team-mates did not emerge for at least 10 minutes and most of them conducted interviews in the media mixed zone.
Nobody seemed particularly bothered about checking in on their vice-captain. It felt like they were ignoring a petulant child.
Victor Osimhen makes his frustration clear to captain Wilfred Ndidi (Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Osimhen is an emotional player — remember his outburst on social media towards Finidi George, Nigeria’s head coach at the time, in June 2024 — but this was a step too far and suggested he is feeling the pressure. He only scored one goal at the last AFCON, a header in a group game against Equatorial Guinea. No prizes for correctly guessing who created the chance.
At the time, he was the reigning Confederation of Africa (CAF) Footballer of the Year. Nigeria’s then-captain William Troost-Ekong won the player of the tournament award and Lookman scored three times in the knockout stages, including the only goal in their quarter-final victory over Angola. A few months later, he won the Europa League with Atalanta and took Osimhen’s crown as the CAF Footballer of the Year.
The 28-year-old winger has been the best player at this edition of AFCON, along with Morocco’s Brahim Diaz. Lookman has seven direct goal contributions (three goals, four assists), more than anybody else.
Osimhen, for his part, is only three career goals away from matching Nigeria’s all-time top goalscorer Rashidi Yekini. He has scored 34 times in 50 appearances, an impressive record. He is loved by the country’s fans but will not be held in the same esteem as Yekini, former Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu or Jay-Jay Okocha until he wins AFCON.
Lookman was asked about the argument after the game and if he had spoken to Osimhen. “I have not seen him but I don’t really think that is important,” Lookman told reporters. “The team won 4-0. Vic is our number one guy. Everybody knows this. He is a top striker and a top player. All the rest of that is not important.”
“There’s no issue,” Lookman continued. “It’s just football. Always football. He (Osimhen) is my brother.”
Ademola Lookman is challenged by Mozambique’s goalkeeper Ernan Siluane (Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images)
Nigeria head coach Eric Chelle added: “What happened on the pitch will stay in the group.”
Lookman and Chelle’s answers suggested the issue had not been resolved, but Ndidi told reporters: “Everything is fine, everyone is together.” Maybe the Besiktas midfielder was attempting to brush over the incident in public, hoping everyone will have stopped talking about it by the time they face DR Congo or Algeria in the quarter-finals in Marrakech on Saturday.
It was a huge shame that Osimhen’s petulance overshadowed such a commanding team performance.
Adams is the selfless, overlooked third member of Nigeria’s front line and he dedicated his goal to his mother, who, he revealed after the game, is in hospital. Iwobi’s passes in the build-up to the first two goals were beautiful. Fisayo Dele-Bashiru had another promising cameo from the bench and Onyemaechi keeps showing why he has replaced Zaidu Sanusi as the first-choice left-back.
Everything was going so smoothly but as The Athletic has pointed out before, Nigeria have a strange ability to self-sabotage.
