It's a heated argument that will now go down in the history of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. Victor Osimhen, star striker for Nigeria's Super Eagles, launched a scathing attack on his teammate Ademola Lookman during the Nigeria-Mozambique Round of 16 match ^. He accused Lookman of not passing him the ball in the Mozambican penalty area. "Hey, it's a team game, it's a team game!" the Galatasaray striker shouted at Lookman.

After this match, easily won by Nigeria with a score of 4 goals to zero, the coach Eric Chelle refused to comment on the incident in front of microphones and cameras from television channels.

"He simply said that we need to stop playing in front of the goal."

Recently, the Franco-Malian coach finally broke his silence on this argument during an interview with RMC Sport.

“What you need to know about Victor is that he’s a great competitor. I love this guy because when he has something to say, he says it. Sometimes, yes, you have to be tactful… What happened on the pitch that day was that there was a discussion, because Victor simply said that we had to stop playing in front of the goal. In that match we had a lot of chances and what he wanted was for us to be more clinical,” explained Eric Chelle.

He admits that after this "minor altercation, Osimhen went back (to the locker room), a little bit annoyed." He needed time to "calm down, and once he did," things were fine.

"We went back to the hotel, they talked, and then it was over."

“They sorted it out between themselves. I didn’t even need to intervene because they are competitors. One of them was angry, the other was angry. It lasted 10 minutes, we went back to the hotel, they talked to each other and then it was over. I didn’t need to talk about it,” the Franco-Malian coach assured.

The journalists reminded him that many hadn't understood Osimhen's anger since Nigeria was already comfortably ahead. Eric Chelle explained to them that the former Napoli player always wants more.

“The guy is a machine. If he doesn’t score those goals in training, he’s not happy. For him, if it’s possible to score 6 goals, he has to score 6 goals. It’s not a fair. Lookman is the same, but calmer. Both of them are assassins in front of goal,” said the Abidjan native.