Napoli Joins Osimhen Race With €60 Million Bid, As Eberechi Eze Contemplates Super Eagles Future

By Akinwale Kasali

Super Eagles and Lille Metropole Football Club of France Striker, Victor Osimhen, is presently the beautiful bride in Europe, as top European Club sides are jostling to acquire him into their fold.

AC Milan, Internazionale Milano and Liverpool have been joined by Napoli in the race to sign the Lille striker.

It was recently reported that AC Milan is looking at potential replacements for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and while Real Madrid’s Luka Jovic is the priority for the Milan Clubside, Osimhen is also a player the club is watching to capture.

The Nigeria international replaced Rafael Leao and Nicolas Pepé who both joined Genoa and Arsenal Football Clubs respectively, both scored 22 goals in the last Ligue 1 before moving to their present clubs, with Osimhen finding  the back of the net 18 times in 38 games this season.

It has been suggested that Osimhen could command a fee of up to €60 million this summer with Liverpool and Real Madrid among those strongly linked.

According to the latest from Sportitalia, Napoli is the latest team to join the race for Osimhen as they may have to replace a striker this summer.

The report mentioned how Milan and Inter are closely monitoring developments, however if the Partenopei were to sell Arkadiusz Milik, Giuntoli’s side could burn the competition and win the race.

In another development, Queens Park of Rangers, QPR, midfielder, Eberechi Eze, has given consideration to playing his international football with Nigeria, but said he is holding out on making a decision immediately.

Eze has been on the radar of Nigeria for, at least, three years without getting capped, and he was among players of Nigerian descent who were invited to train with the Super Eagles in March 2017 following a cancelled friendly with Burkina Faso.

Ola Aina, one of the players in that training camp, has gone on to become a senior international, but Eze is still on the outside and has instead been called up, and represented England at under-21 level.

But Eze, whose eye-catching performances in the English Championship has drawn praises  from the likes of Graeme Souness, says he doesn’t “want to make any decision on my international career until it is time, until I feel like it is right”.

“I don’t want to make a rush decision, as much as it would be a privilege to play for either,” Eze said on The Beautiful Game podcast.

“It would be a great honour.”

Nigeria Football Federation President Amaju Pinnick said in December that he had met Eze and his parents, and was hoping the player would decide to join up with Nigeria as Gernot Rohr builds a squad for the 2022 World Cup.

“I spoke to them,” Eze said on The Beautiful Game.

“But again, I am just enjoying my football right now and I don’t want any added pressure on my mindset.

“I don’t want to focus on the wrong things.

“I want to focus on what has got me to this position, continue doing it and wherever it takes me, it takes me.”

Eze’s stance seems to validate information from a Super Eagles source, who told ESPN in December that the player’s prospects of a move to an English Premier League club could be jeopardized by a rush decision.

“There are very influential people who do not want him to switch allegiance,” the source told ESPN.