Former Real Madrid and England manager, Fabio Capello, believes Nigeria international Victor Osimhen is ‘impossible to replace’ as Napoli look set to be without the service of the Nigerian next season, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Nigerian striker has been touted for a Napoli exit during the next transfer window and has been linked with a possible move to Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Arsenal and even Real Madrid.
Napoli have placed a €130m price tag on their most prized asset but that has not deterred clubs from showing interest in the Nigerian with United recently reported to be preparing €110m for the striker.
With Osimhen’s exit increasingly looking likely to leave the Italian champions, the 77-year-old Italian believed Napoli had a lot on their hands to replace the striker.
“How do you replace Osimhen next year? Million dollar question, there are no players around to replace Osimhen. You would have to have a crystal ball to find him,” the former England coach told II Martino in quotes revealed by Area Napoli.
Osimhen has dominated the headlines with his achievements and is one of the most sought-after strikers in Europe and it came as no surprise that the retired manager speaks highly of him.
Despite missing a large chunk of the 2023/24 season due to injuries and his involvement with Nigeria at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, the striker still boasts 14-goal involvement (11 goals and three assists) in 16 appearances in the Italian topflight league.
The 25-year-old has been in fine form for Napoli, guiding the Serie A club to their first league victory in 33 years with a league-high 26 goals in 32 Serie A games last season, and 31 goals across all competitions.
His exit will however come as a big blow to the champions who already lost Kim Min-Jae and Hirving Lozano to Bayern Munich and PSV respectively and could lose more players in the next transfer window.
After ending the 2022/23 season as the top scorer in Italy’s top division, the Nigerian also became the first African to achieve the feat.
He was also named the Italian Footballers’ Association Serie A Player of The Year for the 2022/23 season.
For the national team, Osimhen, after helping Nigeria qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast and finishing the qualification series as top scorer with 10 goals, the Napoli man only managed to score a goal at the competition but his involvement in the team played a major role in their journey to the final of the competition, where they lost 2-1 to the hosts in the final.
In what has been an astonishing period of his career for the Lagos-born striker, Osimhen became the first Nigerian footballer in history to be named in the Top 10 of the Ballon d’Or with an eighth-place finish.
He also became the first Nigerian, since Nwankwo Kanu in 1999, to be named African Footballer of The Year, beating Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah to the award at the CAF awards ceremony in Marrakech last December.
