Written on the 18th of October 2019.
The day is October 17, 2015. The Nigeria U-17 team were about to play their United States counterparts at the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Chile’s capital city of Santiago. After a dire First half, Manu Garba’s boys sprung to life after the break. Fast forward to the 60th minute, the Eaglets were 2 goals up. A lanky 16 year old forward who stood at about 1.83m tall had just scored the first of the ten goals he bagged in the tournament. The name, Victor Osimhen became one of Twitter’s top trends. Exactly four years later to that day, he’s receiving his award of the best player in the French top division for the month of September after contributing to four goals (Two goals & two Assists), beating the likes of Islam Slimani, Neymar & Wissam Ben Yedder to the coveted Monthly award.
When Nicolás Pépé left Lille for Arsenal in a €79 million move, not many fans of the “Les dogues” thought he may not be missed. Belgian Pro league outfit, RSC Charleroi sold the young Nigerian forward to Lille for €12 million in August after taking a massive gamble on him because a Summer bout with Malaria in 2018 had weakened his body so much that Pro league Giants, Zulte Waregem & Club Brugge refused to take him on loan from Wolfsburg at the end of his trials with them. In 36 games for RSC in all competitions, he scored 20 times & registered a further 4 assists including two goals in the last five minutes in a game Charleroi defeated Zulte Waregem, 3-2. The RSC board decided to activate their option to acquire him for the sum of €3.5 million.
A Nigeria Senior International since 2017, an inconsistent season in the German Bundesliga saw him miss the World Cup in Russia. Thanks to the form he showed in Belgium, Gernot Rohr called him up for the Nation’s cup tournament in Egypt as back up to Odion Ighalo, playing only 45 minutes in the victory over Tunisia as the Super Eagles clinched the 3rd place medal. Since his goal against Ukraine on August 14th, he has grown from strength to strength & has shown that the Super Eagles may finally have a striker playing & delivering at the highest level in World Football.
With 7 goals in 9 appearances in the Ligue 1 so far, Osimhen is the fourth highest goal scorer in the top five European leagues. Behind Robert Lewandowski (11), Sergio Agüero & Tammy Abraham (both with 8 goals). Not bad for a player that once failed a Trial at Club Brugge.
Dezreport 