"We have a lot of talented players with Nigeria. The goal will be to win the CAN in January. We will be 100% focused." This is what Victor Osimhen announced at the beginning of December when receiving the African Player of the Year Award. He is now one match away from fulfilling this objective with the Super Eagles, who face Ivory Coast on Sunday February 11 in the CAN 2024 final.
Live: Nigeria - Ivory Coast: follow the CAN 2024 final
Headlining a Nigerian attack which includes many others - Moses Simon, Samuel Chukwueze, Ademola Lookman, Kelechi Iheanacho - Victor Osimhen stood out in this tournament above all for his sense of teamwork and his total commitment. Qualities that he usually puts at the service of Napoli, whom he led to the title in Italy last season.
“Victor Osimhen is the best African player of the year 2023. He’s an X factor,” said the assistant coach of Cameroon, eliminated by Nigeria in the quarter-finals.
He can do anything. ✅
Victor Osimhen presents the #MoveOfTheDay! 🔥#TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 | @RexonaNG pic.twitter.com/y3EJYLpD7H
— CAF - FR (@caf_online_FR) February 7, 2024
If he only scored one goal, against Equatorial Guinea (1-1), he offered a decisive pass to Lookman, who he regularly receives very good balls, and also caused two penalties, converted by its captain William Troost-Ekong.
Read also Troost-Ekong, pillar of Nigeria's defense engaged on all grounds
“He is at full strength in every match,” appreciates his coach José Peseiro. "He knows he's been important. He's been hit by contact multiple times." He also had a scare before the semi-final, placed under medical supervision because of "discomfort in the abdomen. But as quickly to recover as on the field, he finally resumed training after 24 hours later.
The Nigerian Drogba?
Because on the pitch, Osimhen (21 goals in 34 caps) is everywhere: in attack of course, where his speed on the counter left some opposing defenders in place, but also in pressing to hinder restarts.
Read alsoCAN 2024: Didier Drogba, an intact aura in Ivory Coast and in his native district
“He reminds me of Drogba, he has a bit of the same style”, even dares to compare the former Ivorian international Emmanuel Eboué on the eve of the final. "Drogba gave his all, weighed a lot on the defense, and Osimhen did the same. For a defender, playing against this kind of attacker is difficult: you don't know what he's going to do. When a defender has the ball, he presses it at every moment."
A comparison which should please the 25-year-old Nigerian, who does not hide his admiration for Didier Drogba, in front of whom he will play on Sunday. Even if the Ivorian international will probably not be among his supporters during this final!
Didier Drobga x Victor Osimhen. 🇨🇮🫂🇳🇬
(🎥 @CAF_Online) pic.twitter.com/HKnkNHaZ2U
— Instant Foot ⚽️ (@lnstantFoot) January 28, 2024
Just like his idol, Osimhen went through a bumpy road before reaching the highest level. And it was with the Super Eagles that he experienced his first moments of glory in football.
The youngest of seven children, he grew up at the foot of Olusosun, the huge landfill in Lagos, and quickly lost his mother while his father struggled to find work. “From a very young age, I wanted to dedicate myself to football because it was the ball that always made me happy and helped me forget what was around me,” he told Napoli Magazine in 2022. The kid from Lagos clings to football like a lifeline and he joins the Ultimate Strikers Academy in Lagos.
His destiny changed when he joined the national youth teams. Emmanuel Amunike, legend of Nigerian football and coach of the Super Eagles under-17 team, decided to take him to play in the 2015 Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations.
He finished top scorer in the competition (4 goals). Logically, he continues the adventure with Amunike at the U17 World Cup. Ten goals later – a record – Victor Osimhen lifted the young Nigerians to the roof of the world. And the prodigy attracts attention in the four corners of Europe.
The struggle before hatching
It was ultimately the German club Wolfsburg who won the jackpot. He signed his contract at the beginning of 2017 but Victor Osimhen multiplied the problems. Injuries are recurrent, adaptation to the European climate is going poorly and he hardly plays for his first half-season. Worse, after a visit to his family during the summer break, he contracts malaria, which deprives him of preparation for the start of the season. The German club therefore no longer counts on him.
Offered on loan, Osimhen therefore landed in Belgium at Charleroi, lacking confidence and short of form. But the miracle works; the Nigerian finally lives up to the promises placed in him. His record makes him one of the most prominent fireworks players in his championship, with 19 goals scored in the 2018/2019 season. Charleroi exercises the purchase option and immediately resells it to Lille.
At Losc, he has the heavy responsibility of succeeding the Ivorian Nicolas Pépé, as spearhead of the attack. Another successful bet with an end-of-season report, even truncated by the health crisis linked to Covid-19, more than positive: 13 goals and four assists in 27 matches. In a nod to history, he succeeds Pépé on the list of the Marc-Vivien Foé Prize in 2020, awarded by France 24 and RFI to the best African player in Ligue 1.
Masked scorer
Enough to once again attract envy... It is ultimately Naples which breaks the bank for 80 million.
Victor Osimhen will prove himself worthy of the trust placed in him: he very quickly becomes indisputable, as well as the darling of the supporters, who nickname him the "masked scorer". Since a brutal shock at the end of 2021 which caused him multiple fractures of the eye socket and left cheekbone, the Nigerian international striker has been wearing a protective mask bearing the VO9 logo, which has become a coveted fetish object. by fans and fans of the Super Eagles.
In 2023, Osimhen took Napoli to their third Italian championship title, scoring 26 goals, including the one that officially crowned Diego Maradona's club 5 days from the end. He is also the first African to finish top scorer in the Italian championship. “He is a player who makes Africa proud,” summarizes Ivorian Emmanuel Eboué.
Wetin pein wan talk for where Osimhen dey sef again? Oil too full Ijaya head. 🌟🇳🇬 #TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 pic.twitter.com/Y7BWq9q1bw
— CAF (@CAF_Online) February 7, 2024
This article includes elements of his portrait published on December 12, 2023, when he was crowned African Player of the Year.
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