Top clubs throughout Europe sought out Victor Osimhen this past summer. He drew interest from Europe’s elite clubs eager to strengthen their attacking options.
He featured 32 times in Serie A last season. The Nigerian is the first African to win the Golden Boot with 26 goals. Osimhen has not slowed down at all. He already has five goals in seven games in Serie A this season.
Regardless of the high demand during the summer, he opted to remain with the reigning Italian champions. However, he is currently facing a challenging period in Naples on and off the field. Despite the Nigerian best efforts, the rest of the team is not performing like last year’s Scudetto champions.
Osimhen has been the unwitting target of pandemonium at Napoli, which began last month when the club’s official social media account featured a peculiar video in which he played a central role. The event seen in the post occurred in the goalless draw with Bologna, and it included a penalty kick that the star player missed.
It was a rare miss for the Nigeria international, but it turned out to be the game-changer. The Napoli TikTok account posted the video of Osimhen taking a penalty. It quickly deleted it after receiving so much backlash. The prolific striker’s fanatics believed the Italian side forgot his role in last season’s Scudetto.
Three games have passed since the incident. In each of them, Rudi Garcia’s players earned a penalty. Nonetheless, Osimhen did not take the initiative to shoot any of them.
When they played Udinese in Serie A, and Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League, Piotr Zielinski stepped up to the plate. Matteo Politano took the third in this span.
Reports suggest that in the wake of the controversy of the notorious social media posts, the former Lille starlet has withdrawn from penalty-taking duties. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that the player voluntarily removed himself after being made fun of by the club’s social media staff.
Having seen the series of videos, the 24-year-old is said to have been enraged because he found them to be demeaning.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Gribaudi/ImagePhoto
