African Footballer of the Year 2023, Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen, has been reportedly arrived Nigeria in anticipation of featuring in what will be his second Africa Cup of Nations appearance, according to Italian outlet, TuttoNapoli.
He made his AFCON debut at Egypt 2019 where he came in as a substitute to Odion Ighalo in the third place match with Tunisia. That match remains his only AFCON match as he did not feature in the next edition in Cameroon owing to injury.
Although the Nigerian players are supposed to gather in Abu Dhabi, UAE early in the New Year, Osimhen reportedly headed for Nigeria to first join his family.
He left on Thursday after training and had also obtained permission from the Azzurri club.
At the end of today’s training, Osimhen was given a day’s leave so that he could join his family before leaving for the national team training camp,” the SSC Napoli said in a statement.
Recall that the former Lille man is suspended in the league and would have missed the match against Monza anyway.
In a related development, Super Eagles striker Sadiq Umar has reportedly called short his holidays in Nigeria to return to Spain on the orders of his La Liga club Real Sociedad.
The striker was seen in various social media postings enjoying quality time in his hometown of Kaduna with his pretty daughter Aisha.
A source close to the striker told SCORENigeria: “Sadiq has returned to Spain. He will feature for his club in a match (away to Getafe) on January 2 before he joins up with the Super Eagles for the AFCON.”
This will be his second AFCON after he also featured at the 2021 tournament in Cameroon last year.
The Super Eagles will open training camp in Dubai in time for the submission of a final squad to the AFCON on January 3, 2024.
