Rome (AFP)
Napoli, the Italian Football League champions for the season before last, explained that Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen was the one who chose not to play for the team that excluded him from its list for the local league, after negotiations for his transfer to Chelsea of England or Al-Ahly Jeddah of Saudi Arabia failed.
Osimhen, the league’s top scorer for the 2022-23 season, did not appear on the list submitted by Napoli to the Serie A league, because “he was very clear that he did not want to play for Napoli, so we made other options,” according to club director Giovanni Manna.
“The situation is very clear, it has been like this since the end of last season,” Mana told DAZN ahead of the southern side’s 2-1 win over Parma in Serie A on Sunday. “Victor expressed his absolute desire not to stay at Napoli, not to play for Napoli, and we tried to make him happy.”
“Then there was demand and offer. We thought we had finished the negotiations, but then his transfer deal didn’t happen. We bought the Belgian Romelu Lukaku, and kept Giacomo Raspadori and the Argentine Giovanni Simeone. This didn’t come out of nowhere.”
“At this moment, we are maintaining the same approach we have adopted since the beginning. He expressed his desire not to play for Napoli, so we made other options,” he added.
After the summer transfer window in the top five European leagues closed and Chelsea was out of the picture, Mana was asked if the possibility of Osimhen moving to the Saudi League was still there, and he replied, “The transfer market in some countries is still open, there are many options, but I do not think Victor will go to Saudi Arabia in this transfer window,” especially since the registration window for new players in the Saudi League closes on Monday night.
In order to compensate for the failure to sign Osmond, Al-Ahly signed English striker Ivan Toney from Brentford on a contract extending until 2028.
Osimhen’s situation poses a huge financial burden on the club, as selling him would have secured funds to make new signings.
“Our ideas were clear from the beginning,” Mana said. “We were waiting for Victor to be sold to finance these operations, but the sale did not happen. President Aurelio De Laurentiis took over the investment, took all the risks, and was amazing.”
Osimhen (25 years old) was the subject of great interest during the summer of 2023 after scoring 26 goals in the Italian League, and was one of the architects of Napoli’s third title in its history.
But he had a disappointing season the following season, scoring only 15 goals as his team finished in tenth place last season.
Since Napoli included a €130 million release clause in his contract to allow him to leave, interested clubs did not pay this amount.
Chelsea and Al-Ahly Jeddah did not agree with the Italian club’s demands or the player’s demands regarding the salary.
Napoli signed a new coach, Antonio Conte, who decided to rely on Lukaku, coming from Chelsea, after the Belgian had previously played under his supervision, when they led Inter to the league title in 2021.
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