Osimhen’s future up in the air as Arsenal pull plug on potential transfer

Victor Osimhen was the 2023 CAF African Player of the Year award winner after a stellar season with Napoli initially the league.

A summer move away from Napoli is becoming increasingly difficult for Victor Osimhen after another club pulled out of negotiations for the Nigerian striker, Soccernet.ng reports. 

The 25-year-old is keen on making a move to a bigger European club ahead of the new season and has shunned offers from two Saudi clubs, however, no club in the top five leagues are willing to pay his release clause.

Chelsea, Arsenal, and Paris Saint-Germain have held negotiations with Napoli about the services of the Super Eagles striker. While personal terms have been long-agreed, negotiations have stalled as Napoli are unwilling to reduce their asking price.

As per Sports Witness, Arsenal have withdrawn from the race for Victor Osimhen, taking another option off of the table for the Nigerian star.

With Eddie Nketiah close to agreeing a deal with Roberto De Zerbi’s Marseille, Mikel Arteta wants to restructure his frontline with a 20-goal striker. Although Osimhen suits the profile the Spaniard wants, he’s only willing to fork out £85m for the former LOSC Lille man.

Italian journalist, Ciro Troise, speaking on Radio Capri revealed the only possible option for any club to conjure up a bid for Osimhen would be if they made massive sales.

Chelsea still have Romelu Lukaku on their books, Arsenal have Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah in their books, while PSG will have to part ways with one of Goncalo Ramos or Randal Kolo-Muani to bring Osimhen in.
With the start of the English Premier League season getting closer, Troise poured cold water on a potential Arsenal move for Osimhen.

“Osimhen? Nothing has changed. He reappears every now and then, but the situation is always the same: PSG doesn’t go beyond €70m and hasn’t sold Kolo Muani yet. While Chelsea and Arsenal have withdrawn,” the journalist said on Radio Capri in quotes revealed by Calcio Napoli.

On the other hand, Napoli boss, Antonio Conte, wants to bring Romelu Lukaku to the club, but Osimhen stands in the way. The former Wolfsburg man is yet to feature in any of Napoli’s pre-season friendly games and has been training alone, away from the rest of the team.

 

Adefolahan Guerreiro

Adefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria. With a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience. He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.

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