'He's hungry' - NFF boss reveals Super Eagles star Osimhen wants to be AFCON top scorer

Nigeria Football Federation president Amaju Pinnick has revealed that Victor Osimhen wants to be the top scorer at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.

A club versus country row is brewing between Napoli and Nigeria over the availability of the Super Eagles number nine for the tournament in Cameroon as he is still rehabbing after undergoing surgery on his fractured cheekbone.

Osimhen's downtime was initially put at three months but it has been claimed that he is being penciled in to return to action in mid-January, a development which would put him back in contention to be named in the Super Eagles squad for the Africa Cup of Nations.

The 2015 U17 World Cup winner decided to take the bull by the horns by declaring himself fit for the AFCON, going against the wishes of Napoli who have not yet modified his return date.

Having said that, Pinnick is very confident that Napoli would release Osimhen to the Nigeria Football Federation for the AFCON. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Pinnick said : "Victor is very, very fine. Anything that has to do with jurisdiction of players, leave it for me it is politics.

"All the players that we need to be in Nigeria will be in Nigeria, by God's grace, that I can tell you.

"Osimhen is fine, I had a long conversation with him yesterday (Tuesday), then the Minister also, like a few minutes, and he's very, very fine.

"He's very eager and he's hungry. He wants to be the highest goalscorer for the Nations Cup, so we are very excited about that".

Osimhen is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Odion Ighalo who won the Golden Boot award at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel