Kylian Mbappé, Karim Benzema, Erling Haaland: football is not lacking at the moment of immense attackers. There is one that is less talked about but also phenomenal in 2023. Its name? Victor Osimhen. On March 15, the Nigerian almost single-handedly qualified Naples for the quarter-finals of the Champions League. A first in the history of Napoli. For the first time since the 2005-2006 season, Italy with the two Milanese clubs has three teams in the quarter-finals of the Big Ears Cup.
The former Lille player scored two of the Italians’ three victory goals that swept away Eintracht Frankfurt (3-0, first leg 2-0). Leader of Serie A with a 10-point lead, Diego Maradona’s former club is racing towards the title of Italian champion, a first since the 1989-90 season with the Argentinian genius. And here he is in the big eight of the Champions League for the first time.
Many thanks to Victor Osimhen. Born in December 1998, the same week as Kylian Mbappé, Osimhen has had a crazy season. The striker has already scored 23 goals since last September in 28 games in all competitions. In the Champions League, the ex-Lillois is already at four.
“It’s incredible to make history with this win,” he said. I am happy to have contributed to this victory, we want to continue like this. It’s nice to advance in this type of competition. I think I had a great game, the whole team had a great game against a very difficult team. We will continue to dream, we have the team to do so. »
However, Osimhen did not spend such a quiet evening as that. On his second goal, he got stepped on on the wrist. No one heard his cry of pain. He finished with a bandage a match that he started as usual with a protective mask on his face. In November 2021, the striker suffered a facial fracture which he now protects. Since then, the mask has become an accessory for Napoli supporters to pay tribute to him.
The qualification of Naples will bring in … Lille
If he reveals himself this season, Victor Osimhen has not had such a simple journey. Spotted during the Under-17 World Cup in 2016, he first joined the German club Wolfsburg at the foot of the Volkswagen factories. He was quickly loaned to Charleroi in Belgium, which exercised the option to buy the player, third top scorer in the Belgian championship in 2018-2019. Not far from there, a French club doing the right thing. Lille attracts him in his nets.
Under the orders of Christophe Galtier, the Nigerian discovers the Champions League. He is in the Top 4 of the top scorers in Ligue 1 but his only season in France in 2019-2020 is stopped by the Covid. The following summer, Osimhen joined Naples for 5 years. Lille had bought it for €12m a year earlier and sold it for €71m.
By the way and without doing anything, LOSC also took advantage of the qualification of Naples in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The northern club pockets €2.5m. Osimhen had been transferred in 2020 but for an amount excluding bonuses. The 10 million bonus was linked to the Italian club’s participation in a Champions League quarter-final, at the rate of 2.5 million euros per year over the four seasons of the player’s contract.
