If Gianni Di Marzio, an Italian football consultant had his way five years ago, things might well have panned out differently for Victor Osimhen.
This summer, Osimhen was linked to several European giants after a brilliant year in France with Lille. The striker ended up being signed by Napoli for a reported €70m fee plus add-ons.
Osimhen’s talents have been known since he was in youth football. As a 16-years-old in the 2015 U17 World Cup, Osimhen scored 10 goals to win the Golden Boot and Silver Ball as the Golden Eaglets won the competition in Chile.
Speaking to Radio CRC, an Italian radio station, the football consultant conversed of Osimhen, claiming he wanted to take the Nigerian to Queens Park Rangers after watching him at a youth tournament for Nigeria.
“I saw him in 2015 in Chile. He scored many goals for Nigeria, also beating Brazil which usually wins the youth competitions. There were teams from all over the world and Osimhen scored ten goals,” Di Marzio said.
“I wanted to get him caught by Queens Park Rangers immediately, but he was not yet 18. In Lagos, if you are not 18, you cannot leave.”
Di Marzio then added: “The following year he went to Germany, but there he had malaria, it took him several months to recover.”
Few days after turning 18, Osimhen left Nigeria when moving to Germany with Wolfsburg in January 2017.
He later moved to Belgian side Sporting Charleroi for the 2018-19 season. He stood-out in Belgium and was signed by Lille on a permanent basis from Charleroi.
Osimhen kept up his impressive form while with the Ligue 1 club and attracted a lot of interest before finally joining Napoli in July.
Victor Osimhen is currently one of the most highly-rated young strikers in the game. However, his journey to the top would have taken a different route if he had moved to QPR back then.
