In an emotional account titled “A prayer from the gutter” published by The Players’ Tribune, Osimhen recalled that he was in France after signing for Lille when his father’s condition worsened.
He said, “When I moved from Wolfsburg to Lille a few years later, his health (father) started failing. I was away all the time. Then during the beginning of COVID, he went into the hospital. I was stuck in France, all alone.
“Football was shut down. The airports were shut down. I was calling my agent, trying to arrange a private flight to Nigeria. I even got clearance from the aviation authority to land. I just needed the club and my agent to say I could leave.”
Osimhen added that the delay, amid ongoing transfer discussions, made him realise the harsh realities of the business side of the sport and further recounted the heartbreaking moment he learnt of his father’s death, describing the experience as devastating and emotionally overwhelming.
He said, “But that’s when I started to understand the dark side of football. The business. They wanted to sell me, you see? They were discussing a transfer. So my former agent kept telling me, “Well, it’s complicated. Just wait. Just wait.”
“I was going crazy. I couldn’t sleep. One morning, I woke up and I left my phone downstairs to take a shower. I’ll never forget, I got out of the shower …. and I had a picture of my mother next to my bed, always. I looked at the picture, and I just got a feeling. I started crying. I thought: Something is wrong. Something is so wrong.
“I went downstairs and I had 20 missed calls from my family. I called my brother back on FaceTime, and he said, ‘He’s gone.’ Then he turned the camera and showed me my father. ‘You should say goodbye….’
“I remember I threw the phone and I just went crazy. I tore up the entire house. Smashed everything. I was out of my mind. The noise made my neighbors come over to check on me, and I love my neighbors. They were like family to me when I was alone in France. The guy was trying to calm me down, telling me that there’s so much to live for. For 5 or 6 hours, he stayed with me, and he probably stopped me from doing something stupid.”
According to him, the news left him shattered, as he struggled with the guilt of not being present in his father’s final moments.
“What destroyed me the most was the guilt, all my father’s children and grandchildren were around him. The only one who wasn’t there was me. I was furious, I exploded, I thought, ‘If football is like this, what’s the point? I just want to be with my family,’” Osimhen said.
He added that the trauma nearly made him quit football entirely.
“I called my former agent to ask if I could go to my father’s funeral. He said, ‘Go, but be back on Friday.’ I told him, ‘Friday? To hell with football.’ When I returned home, I truly thought I might never play football again, I was disgusted with everything,” he added.
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