Victor Osimhen transfer saga: Why did the Nigerian Superstar Move to Galatasaray for a season?
by Devesh Jaganath | by Yunchu Li
Summer breaks across Europe have become busier than ever, with clubs splashing out huge sums of cash to acquire their top transfer targets to bolster their squad for the season ahead. In recent years, some of the best players in the world have made notable moves, including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who departed La Liga for the Saudi Pro League and Major League Soccer respectively.
This year, many expected that Kylian Mbappe making his dream move from Paris to Madrid would dominate the headlines, but with the France captain sealing his transfer even before the European Championship began, it was Victor Osimhen’s future that entered the spotlight. After a drawn-out process, the Nigerian striker finally opted to join Jose Mourinho’s Galatasaray on a season-long loan. Let’s recap how he ended up in Istanbul.
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Osimhen’s Rise to Success in Naples
Osimhen arrived in Naples with the weight of expectation on his shoulders, having been signed by Napoli, who were under the leadership of Gennaro Gattuso at the time, for a whopping £73m from Lille, making him the most expensive African player of all time.
In his first year in the Serie A, the Nigerian international had a bang-average season scoring 10 goals, but that was merely a prelude of what was to come. In the 2021-22 season, Gli Azzurri underwent a leadership change with Luciano Spalletti taking the reigns, and the 25-year-old attacker began to flourish, notching up 18 goals in his second full Italian top-flight campaign.
However, 2022-23 proved to be the season that would propel Osimhen to stardom, as he led Napoli to their first Scudetto since 1990, with an incredible 31 goals in all competitions before being voted African Player of the Year in December 2023.
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Spalletti’s Departure and Osimhen’s Decline
After bringing an end to Napoli’s 33-year wait for a Serie A title, Spalletti opted to depart Naples before the commencement of the 2023-24 season, and Gli Azzurri failed to follow up on their performance from the season before, finishing all the way down in 10th place while also going through three managers in under 50 games.
Osimhen, who had just been offered a staggering £10m+ per year deal to remain in Naples, scored 17 goals for the Blues that season. While it was not as impressive as his previous campaign under Spalletti, he did miss chunks of the campaign due to injury as well as his participation at the Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria.
In addition to the significant salary increase, though, Napoli also stuck a massive £113m release clause on the Nigerian’s signature, which would prove to be a major factor in this transfer saga further down the line.
Throughout Napoli’s underwhelming 2023-24 Serie A campaign, widespread reports suggested that Osimhen was unsettled at the club and was looking to move away from Naples after the departure of Spaletti. However, during the January transfer window, no concrete offers were forthcoming, partly owing to his injury, and also due to the eye-watering sum the Italian outfit were asking to allow him to depart.
As a result, Osimhen saw out the season at Napoli, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the 25-year-old forward’s time with Gli Azzurri was rapidly running thin, and interest in his services was gaining serious momentum, with the likes of Premier League giants Chelsea and perennial Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain, among others, enquiring about his availability.
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Conte Arrives - Osimhen Decides to Find a New Home
Following the axing of Francesco Calzona at the end of last term, Gli Azzurri entrusted Antonio Conte to lead the side back to glory in 2024-25. During the summer transfer window just passed, speculation ended and confirmation that the reigning African Player of the Year wanted away from Serie A arrived, with Napoli club director Giovanni Manna admitting that Victor Osimhen had requested to leave the club.
Conte wasted no time in lining up a replacement for the Nigerian, advocating for the club to sign Romelu Lukaku, who worked under the Italian tactician during their time in Milan. Lukaku, by this point, had been frozen out at Stamford Bridge following back-to-back loan spells, with the Blues’ new manager Enzo Maresca deeming the Belgian surplus to the West Londoners’ requirements.
A deal for Lukaku was fairly swiftly agreed upon and it was now Osimhen who was frozen out, with the club taking the decision to strip him of his number nine jersey and handing it to Lukaku ahead of the new league season.
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How Osimhen Ended Up at Galatasaray
At the same time, Paris Saint-Germain had made a formal approach to sign Osimhen as a potential replacement for Mbappe. However, Les Parisiens, who had already coughed up a combined £170m to bring in Joao Neves, Desire Doue, Willian Pacho and Matvey Safonov, were unable to get a deal done, due to the Nigerian forward refusing to negotiate his salary demands.
While Napoli were working their magic to sign Lukaku, and given Todd Boehly’s habit of splashing cash during transfer windows, Chelsea became the front runners to sign Osimhen in what many expected to be a player-plus-cash deal that involved the Belgian arriving in Naples and the Nigerian heading in the opposite direction.
However, Osimhen was unwilling to align under Chelsea’s strict performance-based pay structure and the Blues decided to drop their interest in him on deadline day, meaning that the striker’s remaining options were either Turkey or Saudi Arabia, whose transfer windows remained open after most European league’s slammed shut on August 30.
As it turned out, Osimhen’s preference to remain in Europe was ultimately the deciding factor, as Galatasaray swooped in and snapped up the African star at a wage of £5m per year, with his parent club presumably picking up the rest of his paycheque. However, while a European giant could return for his signature in January, Conte’s side are able to trigger an extension in his clause to ensure they keep his price at a valuation they see fit.
All in all, Osimhen’s way out of this situation now seems to hinge on his ability to perform well for the Super Lig outfit, and hope that those performances can attract a potential suitor, regardless of his price tag. Alternatively, Napoli would need to be willing to negotiate on his release clause to get him off their books - though so far, that seems the less likely outcome.
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What will Osimhen's arrival mean for the Super Lig title race?
Last season we saw one of the most thrilling title races in the Super Lig with Galatasaray being pushed all the way to the final weekend by arch-rivals Fenerbahce. Now under the guidance of master tactician Jose Mourinho, Fener's primary objective will be to win back the trophy this term but it will not be an easy task with Osimhen now set to team up with last season's top goal scorer Mauro Icardi at the top end of the pitch.
If the two marksmen are able to settle into a groove, it's hard to see many sides being able to keep up with the defending champions. Osimhen is widely expected to make his debut for the Lions this weekend when they take on Rizespor at RAMS Park, and you can check out our expert's full analysis of that match on our Turkish Super Lig predictions page right here on SportyTrader free of charge.
If you're more of a long-term bets type of punter, Gala are currently showing up as the second-favourite to win the league this season behind Fenerbahce, with Bet365 currently offering odds of around 1.2 for the champs to defend their title. Alternatively, with Osimhen yet to feature for the Lions, you can lock in very generous odds of nearly 4.0 with Vbet for the Nigerian Superstar to win the Gol Krali (Turkish Golden Boot Award) this season.
As far as the Champions League odds go, Gala are still massive long shots to win the competition, priced at 200.0 with William Hill, while reaching the final will return in the region of 66.0 with Betway.
