Sports

Osimhen Must Stop Diving Attitude If He Moves To Premier League – Mourinho

Former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho has admonished Nigerian international, Victor Osimhen to stop his diving antics if he eventually moves to the English Premier League.

Osimhen has received attention from some Premier League top sides since last summer.

Arsenal was linked with the former Lille and Weder Bremen star but the club ended up signing Brazilian star, Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City.

In recent weeks, Manchester United has been named by the media in England as likely to bid for the Super Eagles striker.

Mourinho, who now coaches Italian Serie A side, AS Roma spoke to the club’s website following his team’s 2-1 defeat to Napoli.

Osimhen scored a brilliant goal that could be in contention for the goal of the season but Mourinho has reservations about the Nigerian’s displays on Sunday evening.

The 17th minute strike was Osimhen’s 14th goal of the season in the Serie A this season.

Mourinho however opines that beyond Osimhen’s goal-scoring feats, he must stop ‘feigning’ being fouled in a bid to con the referees.

“Mancini played basically as a right-back and did a good job of frustrating Kvaratshkhelia, just as Ibanez and Smalling did with Osimhen,” Mourinho, who celebrated his 60th birthday 48 hours earlier said.

“Because Osimhen is really hard to mark. He’s a top player, but if he goes to England one day he will need to change his attitude a bit – because they will kill him for it over there. Here in Italy, it’s less of an issue,” the Portuguese manager stressed.

Despite Mourinho’s opinion, Osimhen had his wrist bandaged when England international, Chris Smalling stamped his studs on the hands of the former Lille of France striker.

Napoli is gunning for their first Serie A title in 30 years when the iconic Diego Maradona captained the team to their second Scudetto glory.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.