Victor Osimhen: How His Relationship With Napoli Broke Down Before Galatasaray Move

Victor Osimhen: How His Relationship With Napoli Broke Down Before Galatasaray Move

  • Victor Osimhen's move to Galatasaray, despite being late, is the biggest transfer of the summer
  • The Super Eagles striker was left out of Napoli’s 2024/25 Serie A squad after failed moves
  • A Nigerian journalist has detailed how the club and player’s relationship deteriorated

Victor Osimhen’s relationship with Napoli was totally broken before he left on loan to Galatasaray, and a Nigerian broadcaster has detailed the timeline of events.

Osimhen secured a season-long loan move to the Turkish champions after failing to secure moves to one of Paris Saint-Germain, Al-Ahli and Chelsea before the European deadline.

Victor Osimhen during a Serie A match for Napoli.
Victor Osimhen's relationship deteriorated before he left on loan to Galatasaray. Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini.
Source: UGC

According to ESPN, his move to Galatasaray was prompted after he was left out of the club's 2024/25 Italian Serie A squad, indicating a broken relationship.

How Osimhen's relationship with Napoli broke down

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Victor Osimhen: George Gardi explains how Galatasaray signed Napoli star

Premier League club Chelsea were in negotiation with the Nigerian striker until a few hours before the transfer deadline but could not find an agreement. Hours later, it was confirmed that he would never play for the club again.

Arise TV journalist Aron Akerejola has clarified the saga, detailing a timeline of how their relationship deteriorated over the years.

Osimhen joined the club for €81 million in the summer of 2020. The first time the Neapolitans received an offer for the striker was in 2022, a proposal of £75 million from Al-Ahli, but the Italians requested £500mil.

Paris Saint-Germain offered €150 million in 2023, but again, the club rejected it, after which he signed a gentleman agreement to leave in 2024 for €130 million.

PSG returned in 2024 and offered £110mil through Luis Campos, who signed him to Lille in 2019. He had a personal terms agreement, but Napoli foiled it.

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Boniface puts up Osimhen’s Galatasaray jersey for sale after arriving at Super Eagles camp

The striker admitted all these, coupled with the club's Tiktok trolling him, affected his mental health, and even though Antonio Conte pleaded with him to stay, he had his mind set on leaving.

In the initial negotiation with Chelsea, which collapsed, he claimed that the English club had negotiated a swap deal involving Romelu Lukaku without his consent.

Osimhen's deadline day drama

Aurelio De Laurentiis further botched a move after Saudi Arabia came back, and the Italian kept shifting grounds even when he offered parts of his salary to pay them off.

This led to Chelsea taking advantage of the situation once more and offering him a salary that would leave him with only about 37% of his salary after deductions and taxes.

When their offer failed, they pulled a PR stunt by claiming the Super Eagles star demanded £500,000 per week, which he denied was false.

Read also

"I'm sorry": Napoli manager Antonio Conte sends message to Victor Osimhen over loan move

Conte apologises to Osimhen

Legit.ng reported that Antonio Conte apologised to Osimhen after the striker completed a season-long loan move to Turkish champions Galatasaray.

The Italian manager admitted that all parties involved could have done things differently to unlock the situation, and thus, he is sorry for the Super Eagles star.

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Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Elijah Odetokun avatar

Elijah Odetokun (Sports Editor) Elijah Odetokun is a Nigerian sports editor at Legit NG. He has four years of working experience having previously worked at Daily Times Nigeria (August 2020 - September 2020), OmaSports (December 2020 - June 2021), El Futbolero (July 2021; September 2021- November 2021), and Sports Brief (November 2022 - July 2024). He is a press conference and interview specialist and has attended trainings held by Reuters, AIPS, and FIJ. He holds a Bachelor of Agriculture (2021) from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Reach me via elijah.odetokun@sportsbrief.com