In the game against Ghana, former Nigerian Super Eagles player Daniel Amokachi described Napoli striker Victor Osimhen as “someone who has hawked pure water under the Third Mainland Bridge.”
Victor Osimhen, according to the former Super Eagle striker, is ecstatic about the Nigerian squad and plays as if his life depended on it. In both legs of the encounter against Ghana for the 2019 World Cup in Qatar, Amokachi singled out the goalkeeper.
The 49-year-old retired footballer told supersport that Osimhen’s humble beginnings as a street vendor on the Third Mainland Bridge had influenced how the Napoli striker represents Nigeria and his club side.
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Football, according to Amokachi, is not only a sport in Nigeria but also a religion. Amokachi added that football in Nigeria is not just a sport, but also a religion.”Football in Nigeria and Africa is a religion. If we don’t have a player like Osimhen who hawked pure water on the Third Mainland bridge, you can see that’s the way he plays. He knows what it takes to play for Nigeria. That’s why he’s running 24/7 to make us win.” he said to Supersport.
Daniel Amokachi also remarked that foreign-born/raised players in Nigeria’s “Super Eagles” team are unfamiliar with the demands of national team play.
The former Enyimba FC head coach also mentioned the second leg of the World Cup Qualifiers, which took place in Nigeria at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja, claiming that some of the players who were born outside of Nigeria and began their football careers there had never played in front of more than 60,000 Nigerian fans.
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“And then you have players who grew up outside the shores of Nigeria that don’t know what it takes to wear the national colors in the World Cup, it is different,” Amokachi continued.
“Several of the players have not been to the World Cup, they don’t know what it is. 99 percent of those players haven’t even felt the Nigerian stadium filled up like the way it was filled up.”