Lille Metropole of France coach, Christophe Galtier has admitted that the French Ligue 1 club’s Nigerian striker, Victor Osimhen has received a massive boost in his summer transfer prospects, following his emergence on Monday as the best African player in the league, megasportsarena.com reports.
Galtier restated his thoughts that Osimhen could be on his way out of Lille this summer, after the 21-year-old Lagos-born forward became the youngest ever recipient of the Prix Marc Vivien-Foe Award, named in honour of the Cameroon player that died while playing for his country in 2003, aged 28.
With 13 goals in the recently cancelled campaign, Osimhen beat off opposition led by AS Monaco’s Islam Slimani of Algeria and Morocco’s Yunis Abdelhamid of Reims, which sees the Super Eagles’ whiz-kid succeed former Lille attacker, Nicolas Pepe, who moved to Arsenal of England after scooping the same gong last summer.
Osimhen, who is yet to resume training with Lille, as he had been stranded in Nigeria following the burial of his father, was voted top African player in Ligue 1 by a panel of 100 journalists, as announced the award’s organisers RFI Radio and France 24 sports portal.
This comes after he helped Lille finish fourth in the recently cancelled campaign, which was cut short in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Galtier has admitted that the Nigerian youngster could follow the footsteps of Pepe, because he is expected to be lured to a top club during the summer transfer window.
Galtier, who has never hidden his admiration for Osimhen and was happy seeing the youngster always live up to expectation as Lille’s main striker during his first ever season in France, concluded: “I have planned for some time that Victor will no longer be here next season.”
