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According to the latest transfer market valuation of players in the Italian league, Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen’s value has now risen to €65million.
It does not come as a surprise, after the Napoli attacker netted 18 goals in 32 games for the Naples side to record an impressive season.
The 23-year-old suffered a cheekbone injury in November last year during a Serie A game against Inter Milan. The injury took him out of action for almost eight weeks and he still went ahead to score 14 goals in the league and helped The Blues secure an automatic Champions League qualification for next season. The four other goals were in the five matches he featured for the Partenopei in the Europa League before the injury.
The former U-17 star was voted the U-23 Best Young Player in Serie A for the 2021/22 season. The ex-Lille hitman scooped the award after beating the likes of Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus and Sassuolo’s Gianluca Scamacca.
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Osimhen, who is currently in the Eagles camp for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sierra Leone on Thursday, is also 7th most valuable player in the Italian topflight.
The Nigerian is behind Juventus’ January signing Dusan Vlahovic, Inter’s Lautaro Martinez, Matthijs De Ligt, AC Milan’s Rafael Leao, Nicolo Barella and Lazio’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
By his performance in the just concluded 2020/21 season, the striker’s value increased by €5million, as he was only worth €60 million as at December 2021, the value he had kept for two months.
Osimhen’s current market value is the highest in his football career, and his lowest was €1million; his value at Wolfsburg in 2017.
His valuation by transfer market negates the latest compilation done by CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post released on Monday. CIES valued Osimhen at €51.0 million, rated him as the 97th most valuable player in the world and third in Africa behind Achraf Hakimi of Paris Saint Germain and Mohamed Salah of Liverpool.
Isaac Success:
Isaac Success endured a challenging start to the 2021/22 season for Udinese, missing the commencement of the campaign through an abdominal influenza. The former Nigerian U-17 star went on to make 24 appearances for the club; 22 in the league and two others in the Italian Cup.
Success had intermittent injuries during the season but he stamped his importance for the club in the matches he played. He scored three goals and bagged nine assists in all competitions.
The 26-year-old missed the last three Serie A games for his club due to an inflammation but his earlier contribution was enough to keep the Italian side in the topflight for another season.
Unsurprisingly, his value in the market rose from €2million to €3million, the highest since he joined the Italian side. His value was €2million as at December 2021. Though Success still has a long way to go to match or surpass his highest market value, which was €5million during his time at Watford between 2018 and 2019.
David Okereke:
Okereke spent last season on loan at Italian club Venezia who finished at the bottom of the Serie A standing and got relegated at the end of the campaign.
The 24-year-old scored seven goals in the league and recorded just one assist in 33 appearances for the club.
The market value of the Club Brugge striker did not remain the same as the status of the club he played for in the league. In the latest market valuation, Okereke’s value dropped from €5million to €4.5 million.
Interestingly, his market value had risen after he moved from the Belgian side to Italy. Before he moved, his value in the market was €2.80million in January 2021, and it quickly rose to €5million by December 28, 2021.
Tyronne Ebuehi:
The right-back missed a total of 19 matches for Venezia in the league in the just concluded 2021/22 season. Out of the 19 games, 10 were through injuries.
The Benfica player, who has spent the last two seasons on loan from the club, made 20 appearances for the relegated Italian side without an assist or goal to his name.
Ebuehi, however, maintained his market value of December 2021. According to transfer market, the 26-year-old is worth €1.40million.
But it is not the highest market value of the Super Eagles player. His highest was €1.5million at ADO Den Haag and Benfica between 2018 and January of 2019.
