Lille Metropole of France striker, Victor Osimhen is bound to suffer heavily next season should he remain with the club, as the decision of the French Ligue 1 to confirm Paris-Saint Germaine as champions, despite the season having being cancelled abruptly, means the Super Eagles’ star’s club miss out on featuring in the UEFA Champions League.
Megasportsarena.com can report that the initial thought had been that cancellation of the season, as occasioned by a declaration by the country’s Prime Minister to keep all sports suspended until September, on account of the escalating effects of coronavirus, should have meant all positions of the previous season would prevail, which would have seen Osimhen’s club retain their UCL spot of the current campaign.
Osimhen got the golden opportunity of featuring and scoring in the UCL for the first time ever, by virtues of Lille’s domineering form of the previous season, and it was logically reckoned that those standings would suffice due to the cancelled standings of his first term in France, but his club will instead now have to make do only with playing in the UEFA Europa League.
The Super Eagles’ rookie and other players in France would have felt there was nothing to lose initially, when the season was cancelled on Thursday, but latest information now reveals that the shock decision to accord PSG champions’ status by default has thrown up a pathetic angle for Lille, who were placed fourth on the table before the campaign was initially put on hold.
The setback for Osimhen now is that the Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup top scorer, who hit home 13 goals in 27 league matches and had five assists to his name from his debut season in France, will not have the benefit of a second consecutive outing in the UCL, should he opt to stay at Lille, but this could also now propel him towards making an exit from the club this summer.
A report by allnigeriasoccer.com added: “Taking into account the average of points earned per match played, Lille finished fourth in the final standings with 1.75 points, meaning there would be no Champions League football for Victor Osimhen and his teammates next season.
“Samuel Kalu’s Bordeaux and Moses Simon’s Nantes were level on 1.32 points, so head to head results were used to separate the clubs, which saw Bordeaux finish in 12th place and Nantes a position lower.
“Monaco, who have Super Eagles winger Henry Onyekuru in their ranks but has been loaned out to Galatasaray, are ninth in the final standings with 1.43 points. (Which means) Osimhen is in line to make his debut in the UEFA Europa League next season if he remains at Lille.”
