{"id":81195,"date":"2026-01-06T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=81195"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:59:00","slug":"lookman-dismisses-rift-claims-with-osimhen-after-afcon-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/06\/lookman-dismisses-rift-claims-with-osimhen-after-afcon-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Lookman Dismisses Rift Claims With Osimhen After AFCON Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Huldah Shado<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Super Eagles forward Ademola Lookman has dismissed reports of a rift with Victor Osimhen following a brief on pitch exchange during Nigeria\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations match against Mozambique on Tuesday night in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire.<br \/>\nThe incident, which occurred in the second half, sparked speculation among fans about possible tension within the Nigerian camp.<br \/>\nHowever, speaking after the match, Lookman played down the incident, insisting there was no disagreement between the two players.<br \/>\n\u201cNothing happened. We were just discussing on the pitch,\u201d the Atalanta forward said.<br \/>\nHe described Nigeria\u2019s AFCON campaign as positive, noting that the team continues to improve with each game. \u201cIt\u2019s been great. The team is improving every single day,\u201d he added.<br \/>\nLookman also dismissed concerns about team unity, saying he did not understand why the exchange had attracted so much attention.<br \/>\nLooking ahead, he said the Super Eagles remain focused on the task ahead as they prepare for the decisive stages of the tournament.<br \/>\nNigeria continue their AFCON campaign with confidence as the team targets consistency and unity going into the crucial matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Huldah Shado Super Eagles forward Ademola Lookman has dismissed reports of a rift with Victor Osimhen following a brief on pitch exchange during Nigeria\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations match against Mozambique on Tuesday night in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. The incident, which occurred in the second half, sparked speculation among fans about possible tension within the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":81196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81197,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81195\/revisions\/81197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}