The Nigeria international was, at the CAF ceremony held in Morocco last week, honoured with the most prestigious individual award on the continent
Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen has responded savagely to claims he did not deserve the 2023 Africa Player of the Year award, Soccernet.ng reports.
Osimhen was named the best footballer on the continent as his goals helped Napoli to a historic Scudetto triumph and handed Nigeria the qualification ticket to next month’s Africa Cup of Nations.
In the final shortlist, Osimhen was up against full-back Achraf Hakimi, who won the French Ligue 1 with PSG and inspired Morocco to the semifinal of the World Cup, and Egypt’s Mo Salah, who won nothing with Liverpool despite scoring loads of goals.
However, hundreds of voters concluded that Osimhen had done enough to merit the Best Player award, and the Napoli star became the first Nigerian to win it in 24 years.
Still, a few individuals believe Hakimi was more deserving of the honour, and one of those tweeted at Osimhen on the social media site X (formerly Twitter).
In his reply to a post Osimhen shared on Sunday evening, the X user wrote:
“Hakimi deserves this award more for his contribution to our continent in taking his home team to the World Cup semi-finals.”
— Victor Osimhen (@victorosimhen9) December 17, 2023
Osimhen did not let the snide remark go unattended to, as the former Lille man clapped back with a funny but brutal reply.
Using zero words and a comical meme, Osimhen was kind enough to offer a hangman’s noose to anyone displeased with his new status as the king of African football.
The year 2023 remains the most successful year of Osimhen’s career so far.
The 24-year-old scored 26 league goals to become the first-ever African to finish as the top scorer in Serie A history.
He was named the Serie A Footballer of the Year, included in the Serie A Team of the Season, and made the Ballon d’Or top ten—the first Nigerian in history to finish that high.
For the Super Eagles, Osimhen was the top scorer with ten goals during the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, netting at least five more goals than his closest challengers.
