Lille manager, Christophe Galtier, has heaped plaudits on Victor Osimhen after the forward bagged a brace on his debut against Nantes in a Ligue 1 game on Sunday, reports Completesports.com.
The Nigeria international who was voted man of the match after the game opened scoring for Lille in the 19th minute and bagged the winning goal 10 minutes from time.
It was a perfect start to the season for Les Dogues who finished second behind Paris Saint-Germain last season and recently sold two of their biggest stars; Nicolas Pepe and Rafael Leao to Arsenal and AC Milan respectively.
Galtier was particularly impressed with the player who they spent so much time monitoring before eventually securing his services.
“Last year, we saw Victor Osimhen score a lot of goals in Charleroi, a profile we liked and Luis Campos, and President Gérard Lopez allowed us to sign him,” Galtier told reporters after the game.
“Osimhen is a player identified by Luis Campos since last winter. With my staff, we monitored the player. He was our priority for the centre forward position. He is a good team player and a real scorer. ”
Lille will travel to Amiens on Saturday for their next league fixture.
By Adeboye Amosu
Copyright © 2024 Completesports.com All rights reserved. The information contained in Completesports.com may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of Completesports.com.
COMMENTS
Osimhen will succeed at Lille. He has all the attributes of a modern day striker. All he needs now is to put in more work, bring his head down and remain focused. With God on his side, he will do bigger things in League 1.
A new Star is born!
I agreleenwith you brother and he should also hit the gym a little bit for strength training and bam! We might just have another scoring machine.
I agree with you. He needs to hit the gym to put more fire in his legs. He is a lanky striker. He needs more power and stamina. With those, he will be fearsome.
If you want to be a quicker sportsman then you don’t need muscles.If you want to be a good fighter you have to be quicker than your opponent with your fists.People with muscles are heavy lethargic and slow.
Osimhen don’t need muscles because that will slow him down muscles does.
@Greenturf, there’s a healthy balance. You do need muscles to be more explosive but the right muscles. Modern day footballers must get on the weights to strengthen and build core leg muscles in their thighs, hamstrings, glutes and calves. Also need to have upper body strength to hold off defenders. This is where the physical trainer of the team becomes important in developing the regimen for a given player based on position and body type
Osimhen is a natural striker. Extremely talented. Every chance should be given to him as a first choice striker with the Super Eagles. He is very capable of filling Ighalo’s shoes, even improve on him.
There is hope that Odion Ighalo is not done yet. Rohr is capable of utilizing both players to achieving his objectives. Amen ? Amen.
Ighalo should stay retired besides he is over 30 and never in his national team career both as a youth and senior international has he won a trophy.
We wish him well in his endeavours.The vacuum he left will be filled with good strikers coming through.The likes of Okereke,Osimhen are good players to fill that vacuum.
Thanks Greenturf.
On the same topic, find below a list of candidates vying to replace Ighalo. Some are contenders, others are pretenders – you decide.
My potential Ighalo replacements:
Paul Onuachu – I get the sense he will get another crack of the whip. Still, something tells me he is neither clinical nor consistent enough.
Victor Osimhen – This lad is a proven goalscorer at club level. Plus, age is on his side. He looks like an ideal candidate to replace Ighalo.
Samuel Chukwueze – Iheanacho was converted to a striker. Will there be a temptation to convert Chukwueze to an out-and-out forward? If seems unlikely.
Isaac Success – Isaac’s return in front of goal has waned significantly – he is no longer sharp. It currently seem unlikely that he can replace Ighalo but age is still on his side.
Simeon Nwankwo – He has rediscovered his goal scoring form. He could be a short-term solution.
Mfon Udoh – He is an outsider at this stage
Blessing Eleke – Another outsider.
Junior Lokosa – A bumper season in North Africa could see national team attention back his way. Overall, his skills appear short of what is expected to hit dizzy goal scoring heights.
Kelechi Iheanacho – He has all the makings of a quality striker once he gets back to what he is capable of.
David Okereke – Decent; promising but still a lot to prove.
Taiwo Awoniyi – He would be wondering how Osimhen is getting more exposure than him. If he adds maturity to his play, he has the potentials to replace Ighalo.
Dennis Bonaventure – He has some way to go yet.
Orji Okonkwo – Unknown quantity at senior football level. Keep an eye on this lad though, a rich vein of form could catapult his national team chances to new heights.
Las las:
Olanrewaju Kayode : If this guy hits the ground running in Turkey, a return to fight for the vacant Super Eagles number 9 position will not be out of place.
Interesting list @ deo,14 good attackers 13 of whom had a great season for the 2018-19 football year.
Just one of them struggled and one who we all anticipated will be our Brazilian Ronaldo but more like if wishes were horses haha.Well sometimes they rise and sometimes they fall I pray the later is not your portion Isaac Success in Jesus name amen!.
Meanwhile,between now and September when a fresh list will be eagerly awaited this tantalising list have to prove why they deserve to be on that list.The likes of Onuachu needs to move to a better league and prove himself just like Osimhen did.I don’t trust the Danish league.
We are indeed blessed and the good thing is this players are young and ambitious.
@Deo
Well composed list;
But I think you missed out two vital players we should all put an eye on going forward;
1. Stephen Odey: for some reason unbeknownst to me,the Nigerian public and coaching staff are not inclined to this dude; for me, he did great in his time in Zurich,playing over 45 matches(mostly out of position wide or behind the number 9), scoring 12 and some notable assist in the Swiss league and Europa league as well. And that earned him a move to Genk in the Belgian league. That’s a great move for me. though he hasn’t played a game yet this season, I think we should look out on him.
2. Chuba Akpom: needs no introduction, he is one that has found his feet running at Paok in Greece,helping them win their first Greek title for like forever. Started well this season in the champions league qualifier ,scoring against Ajax. One to watch as well..
For what’s worth; both are young(21 and 23); so lot to build on…
@Greenturf, thank you for the point you made. And that was exactly my submission yesterday when I said Rohr should have done better with the lad. I later saw that you asked how well the guy performed in training before AFCON. In response to that, I think Ighalo did not do well in training too and that was why he was initially benched in the first match. If he eventually gave Ighalo a chance based on past performance, the same concession should have been given to Osimhen. This is a guy that single handedly qualified our U-23 team and had a superb performance in the last season.
Eventually when Rohr started using Ighalo, he deliberately did not consider Osimhen, even in the matches where Ighalo was obviously marked out, or when he was obviously tired, or when we really needed a speedy striker, simply because he underrated Osimhen. You just made a point that a modern day striker does not necessarily need too much muscle and I believe that is the absolute truth. But that matter of muscle is exactly the reason Rohr underrated Osimhen.
When a team has different strikers that can fit in uniquely in different circumstances, a technically sound coach knows when to tinker with the regulars and change style of play. My own problem with Rohr now (as I still have a lot of respect for him) is the fact that he is way too predictable. Rohr’s issue with Osimhen from his own words was clearly because the guy is not quite muscular or very physical in style of play. But he has forgotten that at times speed and sound technical sense are more needful. Kanu was never a muscular player, neither was he even fast. But NO Nigerian player has achieved anything greater than him. He was a highly technically gifted player in his days as a footballer. If Kanu were to be in Rohr’s team he probably will underrate him as a weak or a sluggish player too.
He almost would not give Chukwueze a fighting chance. A typical German believes too much in physical and defensive football, especially the ones in the days when Rohr was a player. He needs to wake up and smell the coffee because even the present day German team are not putting too much emphasis on physicality as before.
I believe Rohr has really done well for the super eagles but it is time for a change of mentality and approach to things. We are more blessed with attackers than defenders so why will he keep focusing on our area of weakness by being too overtly defensive? If he does not change his approach SE might have reached its peak under him.
For those who keep talking about Westerhof days, there was a Bonfere Jo beside Wessterhof and he listened to him to a large extent. Rohr is a very good manager but deficient technically. If he needs a more technically sound person beside him to complement him, then he should look for such a person and listen to the person.