Osimhen at 24: In the beginning
Super Eagles and Napoli forward Victor Osimhen turns 24 today. In this article, Caretaker looks at the Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup, the beginning of Osimhen’s journey to becoming one of the deadliest strikers in World football.
AMUNEKE SPOTS GOLD
Victor Osimhen turned up at the Nigeria U-17 alongside thousands of other youngsters aiming to impress the Emmanuel Amuneke led Golden Eaglets technical crew.
According to Amuneke, Osimhen was not gold at first sight and could possibly have be flushed away if he did not take a closer second 15 minutes look at the youngster.
After their game, based on what I had seen in the first 15 minutes, I was not interested in that group.
“But my assistants came to me. That’s why you have an assistant. They said, ‘Coach, there’s one player there.’ I said I didn’t see much but let him remain and let’s see him again, ”
“The next game, I put him in and then I took my time to watch him. Like I said, I like his hunger, I like the desire, he wants to win, and I am happy that Victor is doing well today,” Amuneke will recall in an interview years later.
Osimhen lead the attack for the Golden Eaglets in Niger and Chile where he announced his arrival on the big stage with a record 10 goals at the U17 World Cup as Nigeria strolled to a fifth title.
That was the beginning.
JOURNEY TO PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL
After claiming the Addidas Golden boot and Silver ball at the Chile 2015 U-17 FIFA World Cup, Victor Osimhen was the toast of several European clubs.
Wolfsburg moved fastest to secure a pre-contract agreement with Osimhen who was 16 at the time with a deal to join the Bundesliga side in January 2017.
In January 2017, the transfer happened and Osimhen began his Professional career and has since featured for Belgian side Charleloi, French Ligue One club Lille from where he joined current club Napoli in the Italian Serie A.
OSIMHEN AT 24, STATS AND PROSPECTS
As Victor Osimhen turns 24 today December 29, 2022.
The forward has scored 9 Serie A goals already this season for table topping Napoli.
Luciano Spalleti’s will next face Internazionale Milan on January 4.
Five years since his first professional contract, Osimhen is eyeing his first League title with the Partonopei and has played down interest from other top clubs in the winter transfer window.
At club level, Osimhen has played 137 times scoring 65 goals across spells at Wolfsburg, Charleroi, Lille and currently with Napoli.
At International level with Nigeria, Osimhen has featured 23 times since his debut in 2017 and has scored 15 goals, the most by any of the current crop of Super Eagle players.
Going forward, Osimhen is touted as one of the hottest attackers in World football at the moment and has the talent and commitment to achieve great success in the sport but that his choices will play an important part.
The choice of moving from Napoli in the summer with the likes of Manchester United mentioned with interest in his services or sticking with Napoli like he did last summer.
At 24, Osimhen still has up to a decade or more to play and will possibly win titles and individual awards so that by the time he decides to hang up, we will be talking about him as one of the greatest African strikers just like his idol Didier Drogba.
