Victor Osimhen put in a world class display against Liverpool in the Champions League last night, scoring the only goal of the game as Galatasaray ran out as 1-0 victors over the reigning Premier League champions.
It begs the question – why did so many top Premier League teams turn down the option to sign him? Furthermore, why is he not playing in one of the big five leagues?
We’ll attempt to answer this today – we will go through every Premier League team and who they opted to sign instead of the Nigerian international. Additionally, we’ll also take a look at how he could fit into the Premier League in the future.
Premier League teams previously linked with Victor Osimhen
Plenty of top teams in the Premier League were linked with a move for Osimhen over the course of the summer transfer window. However, for varying reasons, they all decided to go for a different target.
Liverpool needed a striker in the summer after Darwin Nunez fell out of favour with Arne Slot. Osimhen was among their list of targets, but they settled on Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak. This is hard to argue with – last season, Isak was arguably the best striker in the Premier League.
Arsenal were also linked heavily with a move for Osimhen, but ultimately chose to sign Viktor Gyokeres. Again, Gyokeres was outstanding last year, scoring a mammoth 54 goals in 52 games for Sporting CP – therefore, it seemed like a no-brainer to bring him to North London.
Chelsea are another team who had Osimhen on their radar, ultimately settling on Joao Pedro and Liam Delap – two players who had already proved their worth in the Premier League.
At 26 years of age, Osimhen’s best years are still theoretically ahead of him – but the Premier League has chewed up and spat out plenty of international icons over the years. For every Didier Drogba and Ruud van Nistelrooy, there is always a Falcao, a Gonzalo Higuian or a Diego Forlan.
Ultimately, the risk factor is what puts teams off the prospect of signing Osimhen. His lack of Premier League experience isn’t the only issue he has – his wage demands, injury record and alleged attitude problems could also be playing a factor.
Osimhen’s stats so far this season
So far this season, Osimhen has scored three goals in five appearances across all competitions. He started the season with an injury, which handicapped his progress early on.
As such, don’t be surprised if he bursts into action over the next few weeks. He is currently averaging a goal every 95 minutes this season – almost one per game.
Osimhen’s possible Premier League future
Of course, Osimhen could still have a part to play in the Premier League in the future – but the aforementioned issues that recruitment teams have with him will not work in his favour if he desires a move to England’s top division.
On the surface, he has everything he needs to be a success. He’s very fast, strong on the ball and shows great composure in front of goal. On top of this, he also makes intelligent runs that defenders often struggle to deal with.
In such a high-spending Premier League summer, it was somewhat surprising to see Osimhen be overlooked, but a future move certainly can’t be ruled out.