On a podcast hosted by former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel, Napoli and Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen discussed the nature of Al Hilal’s ‘huge’ offer to sign him during the summer transfer window.
Osimhen, who helped Napoli win their third ever Serie A title last season and first outside of the Diego Maradona era, said he ‘never thought of leaving’ the Neapolitans but found the Al Hilal offer ‘difficult to reject’.
He said: “I’ve to be honest, I never thought of leaving last summer as Napoli wanted to keep me. But when the offer from Saudi came in, it was a huge one. Big one, it was difficult to reject. I spoke to Napoli and decided to stay.”
The 24 year-old Lagos-born number nine was reportedly the subject of a bid worth £120.3 million from the Saudi Pro League outfit with wages of £1 million per week supposedly on offer but Napoli resisted.
Al Hilal also made a huge offer for Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain in a summer whereby they signed the likes of Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Malcom, Neymar and Aleksandar Mitrovic. They, coached by Jorge Jesus, are currently unbeaten after 13 matches in Saudi Arabia’s top-flight and sitting at the top-of-the-table.
Osimhen has also been heavily linked with a move to the Premier League with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United both interested. Of the league, he said “Premier League is the most appreciated league by every African player – it’s a huge league.”
Osimhen’s youth career was spent at the Ultimate Strikers Academy in Lagos before performances at the 2015 FIFA U17 World Cup saw him earn a move to German side, Wolfsburg.
Whilst with the Bundesliga outfit between January 2017 and the summer of 2019, he failed to score in 14 league appearances with a loan spell at Charleroi in 2018/19 seeing him notch 12 in 25 for the Belgian Jupiler Pro League side before signing permanently that summer but immediately moving on to Lille.
Whilst in Ligue 1, Osimhen scored 13 goals in 27 appearances for the French side and then moved onto Napoli for a club record fee believed to be in the region of 70 million euros.
At Napoli, Osimhen has proven himself to be one of the best strikers in world football and he has scored 65 goals in 111 appearances across all competitions for the defending Italian champions.
