“WHAT MAKES OSINHEN SPECIAL”
Sports Recorder edition, March 11, 2023. Solomon Okpo
Apart from aiming to become the first African to be crowned the highest goal scorer in the Serie A, Osimhen is the second African striker in history to score 10 goals in three different Serie A seasons, while the only African to have achieved such a feat was Ballon d’Or winner George Weah.
“Osimhen also holds his own when compared to other top forwards across Europe- like Manchester City’s Erling Haaland for example,” a French news outlet noted. “When looking at their performances on a domestic level, Haaland has four more goals than the Nigerian if you exclude penalties (which Osimhen doesn’t take).
“Note that the Norwegian striker also played four more matches than Osimhen. While Haaland is at 0.92 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes, Osimhen’s tally stands at 0.90.
“While Napoli are cruising toward the Scudetto and the Champions League Quarter-finals, Osimhen has now matched Cristiano Ronaldo’s tally of scoring eight consecutive goals in Serie A and he is only three goals behind George Weah for the tag of being the African player with the highest number of goals in Serie A.
“A couple of weeks ago, Osimhen had matched and later shattered Gonzalo Higuain’s record for the most consecutive goals in Serie A for Napoli. The Nigerian has been breaking one record after another and it shows that he might already have a unique legacy in Calcio history,” the report added.
However, it was Super Eagles legend Emmanuel Amuneke that gave Osimhen his first big break when he lined up the then teenager at the 2015 U-17 FIFA World Cup in Chile, where he finished as the top scorer with 10 goals to attract interest from several top European clubs before he eventually signed for Bundesliga club Wolfsburg.
The former Barcelona star revealed that he was aware of Osimhen’s vast potential right from his days in the Golden Eaglets, adding that the Napoli man showed a lot of character and the zeal to succeed even at a young age.
