Category: Sports

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.

The Executive Committee of Nigeria Football Federation has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee for the appointment of Mr. Aliyu Zubairu as Head Coach of the National U20 Boys, Flying Eagles. The appointment of Zubairu, who led El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri to win the President Federation Cup at the expense of Abia Warriors FC in Lagos in June, takes immediate effect.  Zubairu’s immediate task is to put together and prepare a team for the WAFU B U20 Championship, scheduled for October/November in Togo, where the zone’s representative will emerge for next year’s Africa U20 Cup of Nations. 

Galatasaray supporters on trouped out in large numbers to welcome their new striker, Victor Osimhen.  The Nigerian arrived Istanbul at about 3am on Tuesday to complete his loan move from Napoli, with a set of clauses. The deal was done in a matter of hours after the transfer window in most European markets closed and he had been frozen out of the Napoli squad. He was therefore allowed to leave on loan for one season for free, as long as Galatasaray covered the €10m salary. However, Fanatik report the Turkish side are actually paying €8.8m in wages. The 25-year-old Nigeria international also insisted on a break clause in January for 10 specific top clubs, while it’s reported Napoli have agreed to lower the release clause from €130m to €80m if they have not yet completed a sale by June 2025. As his current contract runs to June 2026, there will also be an automatic extension to June 2027 with the same salary. Osimhen was originally meant to arrive around 00.30 local time, but it ended up being closer to 03.30.