This guy promises objectives. He is without doubt one of the very best strikers on this planet. And one of the most greatest golf equipment within the Premier League desperately desire a centre-forward. It is a switch equation that are supposed to have an overly obtrusive resolution. Buy Victor Osimhen.
Instead, Chelsea have already moved to herald Liam Delap after an outstanding season with Ipswich. Viktor Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko and Hugo Ekitike are all names related with a transfer to England as Premier League groups search to give a boost to this key place.
Amid the entire hypothesis, Osimhen lurks within the background with communicate of a transfer to Saudi Arabia or most likely an extension to his mortgage keep at Galatasaray. With just one 12 months left on his contract at Napoli, a go back to the Serie A champions has already been dominated out.
He stays the similar ambitious determine who fired Napoli to their first name for the reason that days of Diego Maradona. Serie A’s participant of the 12 months for 2023, he completed 8th in that 12 months’s Ballon d’Or vote. This previous season, his 37 objectives took Galatasaray to a home double.
It feels faintly absurd {that a} participant who, at 26, is ostensibly in his high could be seen as too previous to throw cash at, however the days of Chelsea breaking the British switch report to herald Andriy Shevchenko simply in need of his 30th birthday at the moment are lengthy long gone.
A deal could be sophisticated and dear on account of pastime from the Middle East. The more youthful choices are the less expensive choices. They be offering resale price too. None of which means that that even the patrons suppose those choices will rating greater than Nigeria’s No 9.
Acacio Santos labored with Osimhen as assistant to Jose Peseiro with the Super Eagles. He is apparent in his view. “I respect Galatasaray, of course,” Santos tells Sky Sports. “But Victor deserves to be in the Premier League, where the light would be shining on him.”
The Portuguese trainer noticed up shut what makes him so particular, why he used to be this sort of persona in a position to serving to elevate Napoli to that historical name. “Victor is calm before training, in his own world. But when the session starts, he wants to win everything.”
Santos has tales of Osimhen taking that too some distance. “It was incredible to watch – and as the assistant coach, I was normally the guy with the whistle,” he says. “His team-mates would be saying, ‘Victor, it’s a training exercise.’ He would say, ‘No, we have to win.'”
He describes a participant who’s “very competitive, very demanding of his colleagues” – declaring that “this is just his mentality” – however Santos noticed the opposite aspect to Osimhen. The qualities that make sure that extra regularly than now not he used to be ready to take gamers with him.
“One day before the game, Vitor had a bit of a fight with Emmanuel Dennis in a seven-against-seven exercise. This player was relaxing a little bit, a bit chilled. This was normal because there was a game the next day. But Victor wanted more. He was so demanding.
“We have been a little bit bit shocked by way of his perspective. It used to be excellent. We preferred it. But we idea he must chill out, possibly. The subsequent day, he scored 4 objectives.” They came in what was a record-breaking 10-0 victory over Sao Tome and Principe in the summer of 2023.
“After scoring his 4 objectives, unexpectedly we had a penalty. Everybody anticipated Victor to seize the ball for the 5th. The poker. But no, Victor gave the ball to Dennis, the team-mate he had fought with the day earlier than who had by no means scored for the nationwide staff.
“This is an example that tells you a lot about Victor Osimhen. Instead of having five goals, he preferred to give his team-mate his first goal. Others like to talk in the dressing room. Victor is a leader through his behaviour, through his work, through his example.”
His self-belief is ordinary. Santos regards this as one of the most elements that separates the perfect strikers from the remainder, that skill to shrug off the leave out and cross on the lookout for the following alternative regardless. There is a word for it. “Mental stamina,” he calls it.
“It is the time that you waste after making a mistake. If your mental stamina is not strong, that is not good because you are going to waste a lot of time as a victim of your own mistake. If the time you waste is short then you have strong mental stamina.
“Victor has this power. He does now not care if he makes a mistake. He needs to battle once more. This is a big factor as it impacts your biology too. Your frame will get started telling you, ‘Okay, I’ve to head and battle once more, I’ve to do extra, I can’t waste any time.'”
The irony, in fact, is that losing time is precisely how Osimhen’s critics – even a few of his greatest lovers – would possibly see his profession possible choices so far. Tales of a participant with remarkable pressure don’t essentially chime simply with the circuitous trail he has embarked upon.
For all the truth that Santos describes a participant who’s just about the entire centre-forward – “he is also very fast and very strong physically” – even a long-time admirer like his former trainer can recognize that Osimhen’s profession now stands on the crossroads.
Galatasaray are a well-known membership however the Turkish Super Lig ranks between the leagues of Czechia and Norway within the UEFA membership coefficients. He can plunder in those lesser leagues, profitable trophies and adulation. Or check himself within the hardest competitions.
“It shows his professionalism in winning the championship in Turkey because it was not easy against Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. But I am quite sure that next season he has to go to another challenge, another championship. Victor needs this,” argues Santos.
“He needs to go to a more challenging environment, an environment that will give him what he needs.” And what’s that? “He needs to create those moments of challenge for him to grow as a player. If he does that, he will give 120 per cent of what he has inside.”
This concept of expansion is vital. And the chance is if Osimhen does now not check himself quickly then no one – himself integrated – will ever in point of fact realise simply how excellent he might be. “Our message to him was unleash your power, unleash your power,” continues Santos.
By that, he implies that he used to be repeatedly urging Osimhen to turn extra of what he may just do. “Having confidence in your skills and believing it is possible to do even more are two different things. Cristiano Ronaldo is the perfect example of that,” he explains.
“He was always very confident in himself but he still needed Sir Alex Ferguson and then Mourinho to tell him that he could do more, that he could achieve more, that if he added these little ingredients then he could become even better than he thought possible.”
Still time for Osimhen
There remains to be time for Osimhen to end up it. “When Ronaldo was 30, people talked about him losing speed, losing agility, and then he went and scored more than 400 goals after turning 30. Biologically, we would have to see with Victor. But mentally he is top level.”
The subsequent transfer may just dictate his legacy and there may be sympathy if he merely accepts the most productive monetary be offering that comes his method. “Victor is a humble guy from the streets of Lagos. Football was a possibility for him to be a bit more safe, let us put it this way.”
But the idea stays, what if the most productive striker available on the market presently sought after a shot on the Premier League? “We have seen him in Italy and in Turkey. It would be harder in England, more intense,” provides Santos. “But I think everybody wants to see him there.”
Sky Sports to turn 215 are living PL video games from subsequent season
From subsequent season, Sky Sports’ Premier League protection will build up from 128 suits to a minimum of 215 video games solely are living.
And 80 in step with cent of all televised Premier League video games subsequent season are on Sky Sports.