Victor Osimhen’s transfer: A potential financial boost for Napoli?

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Napoli, Victor Osimhen
Victor Osimhen

Barely one month that SSC Napoli announced the arrival of Nigeria’s international forward, Victor Osimhen, has the club been thought by many football pundits to witness a drastic team and financial improvement. Although the Italian club signed the ace striker at a transfer fee of €70million (N31, 363,237,623.12k) potentially rising to €80 million with add-ons, highest in the history of the club.

 

The said signing has made Osimhen the most expensive African football player, after breaking Nicolas Pepe’s record, when he moved from Lille to Arsenal for €72m last summer.

Napoli, Victor Osimhen
Victor Osimhen

Osimhen who started his career at the Ultimate Strikers Academy, based in Lagos was shortlisted for the 2015 FIFA U-17 world cup that held in Chile where he made his first international debut. After his impressive run in the competition, he was committed to a pre-contract with a German club, Wolfsburg and finally joined the club in 2017 after signing a three-and-a-half-year deal. In 2018, he was loaned to a Belgian side, Charleroi where he scored an impressive 20 goals in 36 appearances.

 

In July 2019, the 21-year-old striker was sold to Lille OSC in France for €14 million (N6,345,111,045) where his impressive performance tipped him to win African Player of the year.

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Upon his 5-year transfer deal in Lille, Napoli came for him as a replacement for their embattled striker, Dries Mertens who scored 9 times after 33 match days in the season 2019/2020.

 

This signature followed Nicholas Pepe’s departure at a record fee to Arsenal; he was believed to be a perfect replacement for him because of his shooting prowess and conversion rate on the point of goals. He was able to score 18 goals in 31 games of all competitions for the club.

 

Mathematically, Osimhen is capable of scoring at least 4 goals in five different opportunities with goalkeeper(s). That wooing statistics made Gennaro Gattuso, Napoli head coach hint that he would rather accept a pay cut for his team to sign the young striker to support Arkadiusz Milik in the forthcoming campaign(s).

 

This the club owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, corroborated saying ? We’d been following Osimhen for some time. Both Giuntoli and Gattuso wanted him, and they convinced me to sacrifice €70m. With bonuses, it will rise to €80m, and if we factor in his wages it will easily reach €100m.”

 

Hence, Osimhen will spearhead Napoli’s attack next season as they look to return to the Champions League having missed out this year. The Neapolitan side finished seventh in Serie A in the 2018/2019 campaign, although they have been guaranteed qualification for the Europa League group stage by winning the Coppa Italia. Their failure to qualify for Champions League will have a huge impact in their revenue in 2020/2021 season

 

Cumulatively, Lille has made over €60 million on Osimhen despite the player staying just 1-year out of his 5-year contract with the club from Charleroi.

 

To realize the transfer fee of Osimhen’s 5-year deal, Napoli would have to make €16m (N7,289,755,091.20) yearly. N490 million weekly, and N70 million daily.

 

According to Statista, from 2015 to 2019, the annual revenue of SSC Napoli increased overall. In 2015, the club registered revenues for “125 million. This figure increased steadily until 2017, reaching €201 million. After decreasing in 2018, the annual revenue of SSC Napoli rose again in 2019, peaking at €207 million. As matter-of-factly, Napoli has spent half of the revenue generated for the just-concluded season to secure Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen.

 

Napoli will not be able to realize Osimhen’s transfer fee in one year even if they sell his jersey at a fee of 3000(highest the club had sold for Diego Maradona) to their about 15 million fans all over the world.

 

With this in mind, the club upon signing the striker has not put up his jersey for sale because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the fans have not come to watch his unveiling too because of the measures put in place for the spread of the virus.

 

Following Osimhen’s inclusion, the fan base of the team will increase in Nigeria and other countries where Nigerians reside, this will give them more viewership bonuses. And would definitely increase their opportunities for promotion by firms. If Osimhen performs well in their major competitions to make the club battle with other top clubs like Juventus and others, there is a chance for them to make twice their 2019 revenue if they qualify for champions league and get about 90% ticket sales, commercials and sponsorship.

 

BRAND SPUR