Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen still has a slim chance of moving to Saudi Arabia or Turkey after being frozen out of the Napoli Serie A side for the season.
The striker’s proposed move to Chelsea and the Saudi Arabian side went up in flames on deadline day, leaving the former Lille forward in limbo.
According to the Associated Press, unless a Saudi Arabian club comes up with an offer, the reigning African Player of the Year might be left in this undesirable position for months — until the next transfer window opens in January.
The Saudi Arabian league’s transfer window doesn’t close until Monday, and the Turkish league window is open through September 13, but Osimhen’s options are dwindling.
Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli reportedly came close to signing Osimhen a few days ago but opted to acquire Ivan Toney instead from Brentford with a reported transfer fee of $52 million.
Whether Osimhen’s long-stated desire to play in the English Premier League broke up the Al-Ahli deal remains unclear. Osimhen’s agent was also dealing with Chelsea, which made a reported offer of 6 million euros ($6.6 million) that was deemed too low.
Osimhen led Napoli to its first Serie A title in more than three decades and enjoyed the adoration once reserved only for Diego Maradona in the southern city. Now, Osimhen is locked in limbo with Napoli, which was unable to find a suitable buyer for the high-scoring Nigerian striker in the transfer window that closed across Europe’s five biggest leagues on Friday.
Having assumed he would have landed with a new club by now, Osimhen has been left off Napoli’s squad in recent weeks and has not been training with the club.
His problems started last September when an irate Osimhen deleted almost all pictures of himself in a Napoli shirt from his social media accounts after the club posted a mocking video of him online. The video appeared to make fun of Osimhen’s penalty-taking skills after he missed a spot kick in a draw at Bologna. Napoli later deleted the video and apologised.
It remains to be seen if the striker will make the move and salvage his troubled career.
