An Outstanding Sportsmanship: Victor Osimhen

No Nigerian, and indeed, African footballer has dominated the Italian Serie A space since George Weah in the 1990s as Victor James Osimhen has with Napoli in the 2022/2023 season. The Nigerian goal machine who arrived Napoli in 2020 as the costliest African footballer ever with a record fee of €70 million from French Ligue 1 side Lille, virtually broke the scoring ceiling in the year under review with aplomb.

Now regarded as one of the most sought-after strikers in the world, the 24-year-old striker is known for his elite finishing, pace, strength and athleticism so much so that Weah, the out-going President of Liberia and 1995 Ballon d’Or winner, admitted that the world has certainly become Osimhen’s oyster.

Yet Osimhen’s breakthrough with Napoli this term started on 12th October 2022 when he scored his first UEFA Champions League goal in a 4–2 win over Ajax, which secured their qualification to the knockout phase. Weeks later, and precisely on October 29, he scored his first Serie A hat-trick in a 4–0 win over Sassuolo.

His rich vein of form continued and in November when he scored a goal and assisted to help Napoli win 2–1 at Atalanta to etch his name in the records as Nigeria’s highest goal scorer in the Italian Serie A with 32 goals, surpassing the 31-goal record previously held by his compatriot, Simy Nwankwo.

Nevertheless, there are still many records to break and Osimhen would be the last person not to strive for the best having eked out a living working on construction sites and selling sachet water in the notorious Lagos traffic, long before he found fame and fortune.

Coming through the ranks in the Bundesliga with no goal in 16 appearances for Wolfsburg, Osimhen’s scoring fervor actually came to the fore while on loan at Belgian club, Charleroi, where he notched 20 goals in 36 appearances.

He racked up 46 in 100 appearances for Lille, en route to Italy, where he scored his 100th career goal in February 2023 to help Napoli to a 2-0 win at Sassuolo. He also became the first ever player in the history of the club in the three-point era, to score in seven league games in a row.

In the UEFA Champions League round of 16, Osimhen scored three goals over two legs for Napoli against Eintracht Frankfurt, which ended in a 5–0 win on aggregate and a first-time qualification to the quarter-finals, where the coach Luciano Spalletti’s side were undone by AC Milan in a 2-1 aggregate win.

Back in Serie A, the CAF Youth Player of the Year in 2015, after his record 10 goals, significantly secured Nigeria’s fifth FIFA U17 World Cup title in Chile, hogged the headlines as he scored the equaliser in a 1–1 draw against Udinese on 4th May 2023, to confirm Napoli as Serie A champions for the first time in 33 years.

What a momentous occasion it was for a club that last won the Scudetto in the 1989/1990 season – during the era of Argentine legend Diego Maradona. Aside Napoli’s pivotal achievement, Osimhen personally registered more accolades as he became the joint-highest goalscoring African in the Serie A alongside Weah. He even eclipsed Samuel Eto’o as the African player with most goals in a single Italian championship season with 25 goals against the 24-goal record previously held by the Cameroonian.

He would later score the winner in a 1–0 victory over Fiorentina to become the highest scoring African player in Serie A with 47 goals, overtaking Weah’s 46-goal record.

In a heartfelt commendation for his ‘goal-rious’ performance, Weah, the only African to have won the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of The Year, congratulated Osimhen, stating inter alia: “My heartfelt congratulations to you, Victor Osimhen! I am very glad that you have accomplished a major milestone in your football career, after scoring your 47th goal in the Italian Serie A league.

“The records show that this goal, which you netted on Sunday, May 7, 2023 when your team Napoli went against Fiorentina, effectively makes you the African with the highest scoring record in the Italian Serie A league – surpassing my own account of 46 goals.

“I am so proud of your exploits and congratulate you on this remarkable achievement which is a result of your hard work, dedication and tenacity. I am also pleased with your kind words of honour in tribute to me upon reaching such a giant milestone.

“The sky is your limit. With your dedication, commitment, humility, and hard work, you can conquer the World. Africa needs another World Best. Africa needs another European Best. You, Victor, can deliver that for us.”

Altogether, Osimhen finished the 2022/ 2023 season with 26 Serie A goals (but 31 in all competitions) to become the first African to be crowned the Italian Serie A top scorer, otherwise known as The Capocannoniere.

Largely thanks to his goalscoring contributions in Napoli’s third Scudetto glory since their triumphs in the 1986/1987 and 1989/1990 seasons, more fitting honours have since poured in for the Nigerian ace who also topped the scorers’ sheet in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations(AFCON) qualifying tournament with an impressive 10 goals.

Remarkably, he registered a double hat-trick in the 10-0 away win over São Tomé and Príncipe where he scored four goals and the other hat-trick in Nigeria’s 6–0 spanking of the same opponent at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, last September.

In October, Osimhen hit another career milestone when he was ranked 8th Best Player in the 2023 Ballon d’Or and became the first Nigerian player to make the top ten in the prestigious annual individual awards.

The following month, he was in the mix of 30 nominees for the 2023 CAF African Footballer of the Year and eventually listed in the final three along with Mohamed Salah of Egypt and Liverpool as well as Ashraf Hakimi of Morocco and PSG for the men’s top award.

Ahead of the African Awards Gala in Morocco on December 11, Osimhen was officially crowned as the 2023 Italian Footballers’ Association (AIC) Footballer of the Year at its Gran Gal del Calcio held in Milan held on 4th December.

“Thank you @grangadelcalcioaic for the recognition and awards, thank you my family, friends and supporters for your votes and unending support,” Osimhen, who will be 25 on December 29, posted on his Instagram Page, adding: “God is the Greatest.”

But the defining moment of his career came when he was named African Player of the Year on December 11 in Marrakesh, Morocco, as he saw off both Hakimi and Salah to become the first Nigerian in 24 years to win the prestigious award.

“It’s a dream come true for me,” Osimhen said. “I appreciate Nigerians for their support. I appreciate Africa for putting me on the map, encouraging me, and defending me, regardless of my shortcomings,” he said.

For his astonishing exploits with Napoli, Osimhen, a proud recipient of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR), is undoubtedly Nigeria’s sporting greatest of 2023 and deservedly, this newspaper’s Sportsman of the Year.