Osimhen: What Next After Record $96m Transfer To Napoli?
Playing his football as well as eking out a living on the streets of Lagos, Victor Osimhen, Nigeria international striker, had only one desire: to be the best and successful.
Osimhen is now the man of the moment, hugging the headlines from Lagos to London and from Naples to Niamey as the most expensive African player ever after signing a mind-blowing $96 million transfer deal to join Italian Serie A side, SC Napoli, from Lille in the French Ligue 1.
His meteoric rise from obscurity to fame is an epic–the stuff made for Hollywood.
After impressive outings with Synergy Ultimate strikers and in the Lagos Junior League (LJL), Osimhen was on a higher pedestal when he topped strike for the Golden Eaglets class of 2015 that was crafted by Coach Emmanuel Amuneke along with the likes of Villarreal winger Samuel Chukwueze and Huelva midfielder Kelechi Nwakali.
After some difficult start, the then frail-looking Osimhen started scoring goals in number for the national Under-17 team; and was the team’s top scorer at the 2015 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations with four goals in five matches at the tournament Nigeria finished fourth to secure one of the continent’s four tickets along with Mali, South Africa and Guinea for the FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile 2015.
“Of course, you can see that Victor had qualities right from the start and as expected, he needed to be moulded into a very good player,” Amuneke, the 1994 African Footballer of the Year, explained. “It was not an easy task but collectively, we worked on him and before you knew it, he became one of the most important players in the team.”
At the World Cup in Chile, Osimhen was as brilliant as electric light and he scored a remarkable 10 goals in seven matches to break the long-standing record of nine goals in a single tournament jointly held previously by Frenchman Florent Sinama Pongolle and Ivorian Souleymane Coulibaly.
Such scoring landmark made him one of the most sought after teenagers in the world but he opted for German Bundesliga side, Wolfsburg where against expectations was sparingly used and played just 12 matches and mostly as substitutes for the senior team over two seasons.
He was farmed out on loan to Belgian club Charleroi, but like a storm-trooper, Osimhen billowed through the Belgian Jupiler League with goals during the season-long loan spell with The Zebras. Here, he scored an impressive scoring 20 goals in 36 matches in all competitions, including the record-breaking quickest goal in the history of the Belgian First Division A with an 8.15second opening goal against Antwerp on 26th May 2019; and was voted the club’s player of the season.
At French Ligue 1 side, OSC Lille, Osimhen was equally at his goal-grabbing almighty best last season as he scored 18 goals and assisted six more goals in 38 matches to be so coveted by bigger teams in the four major European leagues of England, Germany, Spain and Italy.
“From the beginning, I knew the only thing I wanted to do was playing football despite the fact that I have other talents,” the street-wise Osimhen explained in a definitive with this writer in 2015.“Of course, I love music; and I can compose and sing very well but playing football was all that I wanted to do.
“I was born with the talents but learned playing football well by watching my elder brother who used to be a striker in a neighbourhood club; I aspired to be better than him because he didn’t play too long.”
The young Osimhen’s passion for football and fervour for hard work was there for all to see from the start and those that saw his infantile state agreed to the fact that whatever the mind can conceive, and believe can be achieved -the 21-year-old rose from nothing
“I’m very proud that Osimhen was a product of the Lagos Junior League (LJL) that I created,” Aromire Taofik Bello, the CEO of Lagos Boxing Hall of Fame told The Nation. “It was also during my time as the CEO of the LJL that Wilfred Ndidi also came out; I would say Osimhen was our best natural talent.
“Victor just wanted to win; he’s a consummate athlete and often, you see him nagging or whining that he didn’t get a pass or when a referee blew against him. He was consistently the highest goals-scorer for Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area (under Ikeja Local Government Area) at that time.
“He was also passionate and I think Victor fits the description by Sir Alex Fergusson of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his autobiography ‘as a player with fantastic patience’ because he has natural goal-post accuracy,” he reiterated.
No wonder the management of Napoli grabbed the bull by the horns to acquire the service of the boy made in Lagos, Nigeria.
“We are very happy at Osimhen’s arrival,” said Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis. “Gattuso really wanted to sign Osimhen. (Director of sport Cristiano) Giuntoli did a great job because the lad changed his agents during the negotiations. “Lille will receive circa €80m, while the player over the years will get between €4m and €4.5m per season.”
The transformation of Osimhen from a teenage striker to world-acclaimed superstar did not come as a surprise to the owner of 36 Lion FC Hajj Liameed Gafar who happens to be a long-time advisor of the Super Eagles striker.
“January 2016, I told Victor, his late father, his brother Andrew, his agents and his youth coach (Chinedu) that no single defender will be able to stop him,” Gafar told The Nation.“ I told them he will be transferred for over 50 Million Euros in four years and this is the fourth year (smiles).”
He added: “Off the pitch, he (Victor) is just like an average Nigeria young man like my son and your son who wanted to enjoy life. But with proper guidance, he will balance his life off the pitch with that of on the pitch and do well.
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