eports out of Italy state that Napoli superstar Victor Osimhen has fired his agent, Roberto Calenda, after a nightmare transfer saga saw the striker end up on loan at Turkish club Galatasaray.
Osimhen, 25, rose to fame when he scored 26 goals in 32 Serie A matches in 2022-23 to lead them to an historic league title. That led to him signing a massive new contract with the club that included a €130M release clause.
However, the contract and clause have since proved to be troublesome. Osimhen expressed his desire to leave the club last season. But Napoli would not let him do so without a significant transfer fee.
The troubles only grew larger when the club hired manager Antonio Conte, who claimed he didn’t want Osimhen in his squad.
This summer, multiple clubs expressed interest in signing the Nigerian striker. European giants Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea entered the fray, as did uber-rich Saudi club Al-Ahli.
PSG ultimately opted to go in a different direction, pulling out the bidding. Al-Ahli agreed to a deal with Napoli, but could not come to terms with Osimhen, who hoped to remain in Europe. Similarly, Chelsea appeared to agree to a deal with Napoli, but wanted to significantly cut Osimhen’s weekly wages from €350K per week to around half of that.
Osimhen also stated he did not want to accept a loan deal to any club, and ultimately the Chelsea negotiations broke down, leaving him stuck in Napoli.
Conte doubled down on his stance and did not include the star in the team’s official league roster.
With his career at a standstill, Osimhen then negotiated a loan deal (which he previously declined) to Turkish club Galatasaray, but with several conditions.
Galatasary paid half of his weekly wages, while Napoli paid the other half. The loan deal also included a change in his release clause from €130M to a reported €70M. And he can cut the loan short in January if another club is interested in purchasing him.
Reports out of Italy suggest Osimhen negotiated each of these terms with the help of intermediary, rather than with Calenda.
“The negotiation, reports the Neapolitan newspaper, was conducted by the African striker in the first person, without the support of the historic agent Roberto Calenda. Osimhen has given up returning to Nigeria, no longer trusts anyone, he understood that staying in Naples would have been impossible and accepted the proposal,” the report claimed.
It’s quite possible Osimhen finds a new club in January. But for the time being, it appears he fumbled the bag in a massive way at the most important stage of his career. And it seems he blames Calenda for the blunder.
