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French club Lille Metropole are close to agreeing a deal with Belgian outfit, Sporting Charleroi for young Nigeria forward Victor Osimhen, Completesports.com reports.
Lille according to a report in Francefooball.fr, have tabled a bid of €12m with a €2m bonus and a 15% percentage for Osimhen and are waiting for Charleroi’s response.
Lille, according to the report are keen on bringing in Osimhen as replacement for Portuguese striker Rafael Leao who is set to leave the club this summer.
Osimhen joined Charleroi on loan from German club Wolfsburg last August. He scored 20 goals in 36 games for the club.
Charleroi activated their option to acquire Osimhen on parmanent basis at the end of the season following his satisfactory performances while on loan.
His impressive showing for the club also helped him make Nigeria’s 23-man list to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
Osimhen made just one appearance for the Super Eagles in the competition as the Gernot Rohr’s team progressed to win the bronze medal.
By Adeboye Amosu
12 Comments
Nice Move….!
It will be a good step for Victor,
Great news!though he may not be the replacement for Ighalo after all.He has not given any hint he’s that player to lead the line for the super eagles.
Lille is an uprising club a platform to take his game to another level with hardwork.
Interestingly,we have a couple of upward movement from our strikers in Europe.We shall be watching with keen interest hoping someone would spring up good enough to wear that big and demanding boots left behind by Odion Ighalo.
_On the right path_
The news of Oshimen’s impending move to Lille is one that will fill a lot of Super Eagles fans with joy.
The French league appears to have a higher profile than the Belgian league and it is one in which Nigerian players shone like a million stars in recent past.
Vincent Enyeama – while playing for Lille incidentally – famously kept clean sheets in 11 games consecutively and was only 115 minutes shy of beating the record of Gaëtan Huard who had gone 1,176 minutes without conceding a goal in 1992/93 season (Enyeama went 1,061 minutes without conceding in 2013/14 season).
Peter Odewingie had a bumper season in Lille as well scoring 23 goals in 75 games between 2004 and 2007.
Jay Jay Okocha played for perhaps the highest profile club of his career when he razzled and dazzled for PSG in the late 1990s.
John Utaka, 24-year-old at the time, becomes only the third player along with Juste Fontaine and Michel Platini to score consecutive hat-tricks in 74 years of top-flight football in France in 2006 while playing for Rennes.
Now Oshimen wants to follow in the footsteps of these greats.
Here is wishing Oshimen good luck in his effort to secure a contract with Lille and will be look to him to set a record of his own – perhaps go one step further than Utaka and score hat tricks in 3 consecutive matches!
Don’t forget maybe our best export to france in Victor Ikpeba for Monaco
Of course! The crowned Prince of Monaco. He scored well over 50 goals in a highly successful spell at the club.
Haruma Lukman also turned out for Monaco but was less successful.
Kalu is in Bordeaux. He is also a good player. He was outstanding when he came
in as a substitute during our game against Tunisia. The Algerian national team and Madagascar national team featured players that are playing in France during afcon .from the performance of players playing in France during during the competition it is obvious that the standard of French league is very high.
Good luck to you my pikin. It’s quite unfortunate that you made just one appearance at the just concluded AFCON under a coach who doesn’t know raw talents.
You could have bn his joker but he said you are young forgetting that Owen was really young at France 98 world cup. Oh well, good luck to you my lovely pikin. I’m pretty sure that one day you will make me proud. God bless Nigeria!!!
Osimhem is a great son of Nigeria for whom the whole Africa is extremely proud.
Because of Osimheem’s presence in the Nigeria’s team in the immediate future, Ighalo absence will not be immensely felt.
owen was young yes, but his football experience and know how was very mature for someone his age. not every young and upcoming footballer can possess what owen possessed. osimhen is talented but not fantastic, he still needs to work on his game and thats why coach rohr said he is learning. by the time his game matures i think he will do well in the senior team.
Yes Patrick, but Kalu is still finding his feet – given time, he will find his feet. His 3 goals in 21 games for Bordeaux may not be high catching at this point but his hard work and willingness to learn, are.
Other notable Nigerian players who did great things in the French league over time are:
Taiye Taiwo: 17 goals over six years (between 2005 and 2011) for a defender was truly remarkable indeed. It is say to say he chipped in more than his own fair share of goals for the club.
Never before Taiwo or after him has the French league witnessed a defender with such a bazooka for a left foot! He could score them from anywhere on the pitch.
Wilson Orunma: Why did Orunma choose that time to exist as a footballer! We need him now, today. Orunma’s fluid style of midfield play is what is sorely lacking in the Super Eagles at the moment.
At least fans of Lens, Nancy, Nimes, Sochaux, Marseille and Guingamp in France had the pleasure of watching this midfield marvel strut his stuff between 1994 and 2009 (in between playing in other leagues at some point in that time frame).
Rewritten:
Yes Patrick, but Kalu is still finding his feet – given time, he will find his it. His 3 goals in 21 games for Bordeaux may not be eye catching at this point but his hard work and willingness to learn are.
Other notable Nigerian players who did great things in the French league over time are:
Taiye Taiwo: 17 goals over six years (between 2005 and 2011) for a defender was truly remarkable indeed. It is safe to say he chipped in more than his own fair share of goals for the club.
Never before Taiwo or after him has the French league witnessed a defender with such a bazooka for a left foot! He could score them from anywhere on the pitch.
Wilson Oruma: Why did Oruma choose that time to exist as a footballer! We need him now, today. Oruma’s fluid style of midfield play is what is sorely lacking in the Super Eagles at the moment.
At least fans of Lens, Nancy, Nimes, Sochaux, Marseille and Guingamp in France had the pleasure of watching this midfield marvel strut his stuff between 1994 and 2009 (in between playing in other leagues at some point in that time frame).
Taiye Taiwo’s goals for Marseille:
https://youtu.be/lntPUIs7N9U