Napoli has confirmed the signing of one of the top current Nigerian football talents. Victor Osimhen arrives from Lille and becomes the most expensive signing in the history of the club.
The 21-year-old striker has signed until 2025, paying allegedly €70M, plus an extra €10M if he complies with season objectives. Before the highest signing by the Serie A table club had been Gonzalo Higuain. He costed €39M when he moved from Real Madrid to the San Paolo in 2013.
Osimhen arrived only last season to Lille, following the departure of Rafael Leão to AC Milan for €30M. He scored 13 goals in 25 league appearances, plus 2 more in the Champions League.
Victor costed only €12M to Lille, arriving from Belgian team Charleroi. In total, the Lillois profited €58M for the Nigerian forward, who spent only a season playing in the Ligue 1 table.
Who is Victor Osimhen?
There is a reason why we tipped Osimhen for a move this Summer. While we expected Bayern Munich to take him to Germany, as the German champions need a backup for Lewandowski. But, Napoli was quicker to recruit the Nigerian international.
The quick paced forward was born in the 29th of December of 1998, meaning he is only 21 years old.
Osimhen’s talents were first brought to light during 2015 Under 17 UEFA World Cup, where he was the top scorer with 10 goals. He was named 2nd best player of the tournament, behind teammate Kelechi Nwakali.
Nwakali hasn’t found much success so far, currently playing at Huesca in Spain. Nigeria would go on to win the tournament, their 5th trophy in that category.
Following the boom of the World Cup performance, Osimhen would move to the Bundesliga table, to play in Wolfsburg. However, he only played 12 games and failed to hit the net once, being loaned to Charleroi.
In the Belgian club he scored 20 times in 36 games and at the end of the season Charleroi activated his buyout clause. However, he didn’t say long in Belgium, as he was sold immediately after in July 2019 to Lille.
Osimhen was a complete success in France, scoring 18 times in 38 games, even though he was injured throughout a couple games during the season.
His notorious pace combined with a great aerial ability (he is 1,85m) makes him a perfect striker for any team and we are sure he will thrive under Gennaro Gattuso’s orders.
What can Osimhen add to Napoli?
Osimhen’s arrival gives another option for Napoli alongside Milik and allows Mertens to move to the wing or false 9 position, offering more options to Gattuso.
Milik has been sidelined most of the season due to an injury but despite that he still scored 11 goals in 19 games. As the Polish forward is also quite tall (1,86m) we believe that Napoli will be a threat on aerial duels and set pieces.
However, despite his height, Milik only averages 1.4 aerials won per match. He makes 2.6 shots per game and only 0.3 dribles. Arkadius Milik makes 0.8 key passes per match, which is understandable as he is more a target man than a skillful forward.
Victor offers other possibilities as his stats show. He wins 4.4 of his aerial duels and averages 3 shots on target per game. His weaknesses are also about dribbling and passing accuracy: only 63.7% of his passes were successful last season.
Osimhen also has to work on his offside awareness, specially against compact defenses. Still, we believe that with the experience of Gennaro Gattuso, the young player will grow and soon will become even a better striker.
What do you think about Victor Osimhen’s transfer to Napoli? Do you think he made the right choice? And was the fee paid for the Nigerian too much? Let us know in the comments below.
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