SSC Napoli of Italy striker, Victor Osimhen is bound to face another brick wall in his hope of excelling with the Italian Serie A club, as reports out of The Land of The Azzurri indicate that his transfer fee has come under fresh investigation.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Osimhen has hit a rich vein of form in pre-season, notching home seven goals in three matches, as to suggest he will have a better outing in his second season with Napoli than he had in the first.
His first campaign with the Naples-based side was blighted by injury copped on international duty, coronavirus contracted at a party in Lagos, a red card in the UEFA Europa League and a head collision in Serie A.
That left critics lampooning his mammoth transfer fee of €81m from Lille Metropole of France to Napoli, as the Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup gold medalist and top scorer appeared to have been overpriced.
Sadly, when the product of Ultimate Strikers Football Academy of Lagos, who has previously played for VfL Wolfsburg of Germany and Sporting Charleroi of Belgium, appeared finally settling down to justify his huge valuation, another round of controversy has erupted round him.
The latest dent to his pride and potentital source of distraction heading into the new Serie A season is this time coming out of France, as Lille, who were crowned French Ligue 1 champions last season and this past wekend beat PSG in the Super Cup, have also raised eyebrows over the lad’s transfer fee.
Some months after an intial probe was launched in Italy but fell dead inthe wood, French newspaper, L’Equipe have followed up on an earlier report in June that authorities in France were investigating the Osimhen transfer.
Although sources at Napoli remained defiant and confident that it was an issue with Lille’s accounting rather than their own, fresh speculation is rising that the Serie A side paid only €40m for Osimhen.
The report stated in part: “Lille have taken action over the transfer that took Victor Osimhen to Serie A club Napoli. The transfer was perhaps worth half of the supposed €81m fee.
“The deal was done for a reported €71m plus up to €10m in bonuses after weeks of negotiations. That included the cost of four players who Napoli handed over to Lille – Orestis Karnezis, youth team players Claudio Manzi, Ciro Palmieri and Luigi Liguori.”
