Napoli head coach Walter Mazzarri has said he has pardoned Victor Osimhen for receiving a red card against AS Roma.
Osimhen was given his matching orders after collecting a second yellow card in Napoli’s 2-0 defeat at AS Roma.
Napoli went into the game against Roma hoping to bounce back from the shock 4-0 loss at home to Frosinone in the Coppa Italia.
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Unfortunately, the Nigerian striker was sent off with four minutes left with the score at 1-0.
“Perhaps he felt the pressure after such a great season,” Mazzarri said at a press conference on Thursday, as quoted by Il Corriere dello Sport.
“Unfortunately, he was returning from an injury, and now he will play in the Africa Cup of Nations. I pardon him [for the red card] because he must be protected.”
Osimhen is not expected to play again for Napoli until February that is if the Eagles reach at least the semi-final of the AFCON 2023.
10 Comments
All that one na for your own pocket my guy – leave story abeg!
If the right offer comes, you and your dog both know that he’s offski lalaji!
I am disappointed with Yaya Tour prediction, it either stems out of jealous or envy and what ever the case Nigeria will surprise the so called football analysts
I Think Nigeria should start keeping Tabs on 16 yr old Ethan Nwaneri of Arsenal.. looks like a big talent and the Midfielder we may depend on in the near future. Make sure we put some effort in getting this player. And for goodness sake We should relook this Michael Olise matter before he is cemented by France National team
I am having a mixed feeling between which team list I believe will be announced. is it the pasero list or the nff list? I foresee the nff technical committee having the final say on the team list. If I see Nwakali, Musa, and Ekong in the final 27- man list, then I know the list has been compromised.
@Ugo Iwunze, if I were you , do even think of it. You think England will allow a good talent to go else where? That ship has sailed.
It’s late to start looking at talking to him to play for us. Until we have a better strategy of bringing players like this down to play for us, we will always miss talents like Nwaneri.
Do you remember the carelessness on the path of the NFF and Genot in managing Eze. The attitude led to losing tgat guy to England. We often wake up late, mostly when those players are shining and are already weighing their chances of playing for their country of birth. Why not earlier? When they are still emerging. Call them to camp with a few slected NPFL players for grade A or B friendly matches. Why not take our age-grade teams on a training tour of England and organize unofficial matches against some them who are born and raised abroad. Lots of stuffs NFF can do. USA do it a lot. And it’s working for them. We are always late in approaching these players o and those we will always get, no matter how hard we try, will be those considered surplus requirement by their home countries like England. I heard Koleosho is already being tracked by USA. Solanke has been there for ages and no one is even looking at his direction until he started scoring of late. We don’t really to learn anything from our failures. We just rely on things happening by chance. No deliberate plan to off great stuffs. Chance and luck are want dictate our success and decisions. It is well
With the Afcon just around the corner, Osimhen needs to be advised to watch his temper.
He can learn a lot from what happened to Zidane in the 2006 world cup final. Materazzi exchanged words with Zidane, and the normally calm midfielder completely lost his head. His retaliation got him sent off in a world cup final, the biggest game in a player’s career, and he also lost the trophy as a result. I believe if he had remained on the pitch, France could have won it.
That’s how costly losing your head can be. Personally and for your team.
Afcon opponents will surely try to provoke Osimhen into costly mistakes. They will grab his jersey, they will abuse and insult him, they will pepper him with kicks, elbows, and crunching tackles.
When you get to where Osimhen has gotten as a striker, expect this. It will be naive to think otherwise.
He must be on his guard. We do not need Osimhen getting sent off at the Afcon!
@Pompei, did you really see that match or the highlight before commenting or just judging by what his racist Coach said and stupid News media put out here? He didn’t retaliate to any tackles. He was just trying to steal the ball from an opponent. Normal Osimhen level and that’s all. Politano should be the one the stupid Coach should be addressing cuz he was the one that got sent off for an unnecessary foul. Eventhough the player that trip him got a yellow card but he got a straight red by kicking the guy.
So why he said he forgave Osimhen baffles. Reason why Osimhen must leave that yeye team. If anything goes wrong na, hin head dem go put am. Hin teammates no go gree pass even when he is well placed to score instead shoot at impossible angles. Coach go comot eye like say e no see am but let Osimhen miss 1 chance like this. The Coach, the only Napoli Fans and the Italian pundits will start saying he’s not in top form and start making comparison with players we all know Osimhen is clear off but the jealousy of some of his teammates who don’t want to be outshined won’t feed him properly
Arsenal or Real Madrid should just break the Bank and rescue Osimhen from his toxic teammates
SeanT, did you read and understand my post before commenting on it?
I used Zidane’s example to illustrate how opponents will attempt to get under the skin of key players, just to frustrate them and throw them off their game.
Was the decision to send him off wrong? Abi is the ref also racist? Are the VAR officials too racist?
We all know Osimhen plays with passion, and that passion can be a weapon, but it can also work against him. He should not have made that tackle that got him sent off.
He had a scoring chance developing, the pass intended for him by Zielinski ended up behind him, and he went chasing backwards to retrieve the ball. All good so far. But he then succumbed to frustration with that late tackle. Mourinho immediately started his theatrics on the by line, protesting to the ref. The Roma players on the pitch joined, and the next thing is Osimhen seeing red.
Imagine that happening at the Afcon?
Cool heads need to prevail at all times. Think of the team first.
@Pompei, you could be right about Osimhen giving in to frustrations sometimes. Spaletti really worked on him in that aspect and he has really change a lot though not completely. He know longer fight defenders or react in a way that can get him booked after receiving heavy knocks or tackles unlike before.
In this situation, he was only trying to win or retrieve the ball back and he’s been successful on some ocassion without conceding foul but he was just unlucky this time and am not condemning the decision of the Ref, neither VAR, Mourinho or Roma players but his Coach coming out to say he has forgiven Osimhen and but leaving out Politano who actually acted foolishly from any blame is ridiculous. He made it sound as if Osimhen was actually the one that cost them the game.
Bro, don’t forget this white people are very manipulative. Protect their own and look for who to use as a scapegoat. Till today Kvaratskhelia was never blamed for the penalty he lost at quarterfinal that leads to their exit at the Champions league even after being selfish and play rubbish throughout the match but if it were to be Osimhen, they will nearly lynch him