Galatasaray of Turkey are thanking their stars for the dream move that brought outgoing African Footballer of The Year, Victor Osimhen into their squad.
Sports247 reports that another wave of excitement is brewing through the Istanbul-based outfit, as Osimhen hit another goal on Monday in the Turkish Super Lig.
This time, it came in a feisty Istanbul Derby against Gala’s eternal rivals, Besiktas and, apart from helping The Yellow & Red seal a 2-0 win, it also meant Osimhen had scored in three consecutive games.
It also came exactly a week after that historic date of Saturday, October 19, 2024, when ‘The Seamless Henchman’ defied gravity to net a breathtaking goal for Galatasaray and sent tongues wagging all across the world.
Not only did his acrobatic overhead kick seal a 3-0 win for Gala against Alanyaspor in a Super Lig fixture, it also placed Osimhen second behind only the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo for the world’s highest leap to net a goal.
CR7 enacted the world record feat of 2:38 metres in action for Real Madrid of Spain against one of his former clubs, Juventus of Italy, during a UEFA Champions League fixture; while ‘Unseen’ Osimhen’s effort saw him come close at 2:32 metres.
Incidentally, Osimhen also places close behind Ronaldo in Serie A statistics for minutes per goals scored, as the fast rising star, who was born on December 29, 1998 in Lagos, continues riding high in meteoric proportions.
Osimhen’s 125 minutes per goal ratio enacted with SSC Napoli, from where he moved on loan to Galatasaray in the summer of 2024, is third in Serie A – behind second placed Brazilian icon, Ronaldo da Lima (167 minutes) and top standing Cristiano Ronaldo (104 minutes).
With Osimhen now rated as the second player ever to score with an overhead kick from over 2.3 metres in the air, many observers of the game believe there are a lot more heroics to be seen from this youngster, who cut his teeth playing for Ultimate Strikers Football Academy of Olusosun, in Oregun-Ojota area of Lagos.
His exploits with Napoli, where he notched 76 goals in 33 matches and guided them to their first Serie A title in 33 years, earned him the award for African Footballer of The Year 2023.
That same year, ‘Seamless’ Osimhen got up to 8th spot on the Ballon d’Or roster and, although he missed the cut for the next award and that for 2024 APOY, his move to Galatasaray pinpointed greater exploits ahead of this lad with lethal goal scoring instincts.
As of the end of October 2024, ‘Osi’ had already enacted a feat of seven goal contributions (four in the net and three assists) in just seven matches, which helped keep Gala on top of the Super Lig table and looking good to retain the title.
It also meant that this 25-year-old hitman, the last of six siblings born to parents of Esan origin in Edo State, was justifying all the hype that trailed him during the transfer window – with reported interest from Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool of England, PSG of France and Al-Ahly of Saudi Arabia hitting him in droves.
All the hoopla around him is apparently justifiable. Here is a fast rising star with incredibly immense abilities – quick acceleration, flashlight mobility, all-action impact, rabble-rousing physicality and deadly eye for goal.
His lethal goals-scoring ability is accentuated by near perfect execution of hot shots and bullet headers, which make many analysts dub him as ‘the most complete striker who is yet to hit his peak.’
Nigerian former attacker and ex-assistant coach, Daniel ‘Da Bull’ Amokachi recently joked that Osimhen’s athletic ability while playing matches was developed through his childhood days, when the youngster had to run after people in cars and buses while selling sachet water during traffic jam on the streets of Ojota, Lagos.
Amokachi might not be far from the truth, as even Osimhen (who stands tall at 6 feet, 1 inch) is never shy to reveal how he battled through hard times, fending for himself after the death of his mother, when he was yet to become a teenager and his dad suddenly lost his job.
Those hard times toughened Osimhen, such that he was able to weather the storm when things did not get off to a widely expected roller-coaster of relevance and efficiency during his first professional stop in Europe.
That was at VFL Wolfsburg of Germany, who bought him on the strength of his record setting haul of 10 goals in a single tournament that helped Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets win the FIFA U17 World Cup back-to-back at Chile 2015.
Osimhen landed in Deuchtland on a high, but fell short of expectations; as injuries and naivity limited him to no goal in 14 appearances for Wolfsburg from 2016 to 2019.
Fortunately for Osimhen, the turning point came for him when The Wolves loaned him to Racing Charleroi of Belgium in 2018 and the Eredivisie side bought him outright the following year, because he suddenly hit a sensational spark.
A haul of 12 goals in 25 games with Charleroi gave an inkling of what Osimhen could do, and he was soon on his way to Lille Metropole of France, where his majestic form soared even further.
This time, a log of 12 goals in 27 games meant ‘Osi’ spent only one season in Ligue Un and he promptly moved to SSC Napoli of Italy on a club record fee of 70m euros in 2022.
The City of Naples provided Osimhen with his point at the rubicon, with several individual and team millstones rolling his way in an avalanche of glory.
At the end of his first season in Serie A, Osimhen was voted best overall young player. The following season, he notched 26 goals to become the highest scoring African of all time in the Italian top-flight.
He was also named best striker and best player of the year, having helped the Neapolitans nick their first title since the days of Diego Maradona in their squad 33 years earlier.
Though he fell out with the club at the end of the 2023/2024 campaign, that spat turned into a blessing for him and Galatasaray, as Osimhen moved over to the Istanbul-based side without a pay cut and in a deal that had a release clause fixed for January 2025 – ‘if any elite club offers him a full transfer.’
To justify the trust Gala put in him, Osimhen, who welcomed his first child and daughter, Haly, in October 2022, hit home four goals and provided same number of assists in his first seven games for the Turkish champions (five appearances in the domestic Lig and two in UEFA Europa League).
One missing link, though, for Osimhen is his inability to lift Nigeria’s Super Eagles to laurels, as he fails to be regularly available and impactful in the same way he has done at club level.
Despite becoming the country’s third highest scorer of all time (behind only Rashidi Yekini with 37 and Segun Odegbami on 23), Osimhen failed to inspire the Eagles to reach the 2023 World Cup in Qatar and he managed only a single goal (with two others ruled out for offside) as his country placed second at the Africa Cup of Nations 2024 in Cote d’Ivoire.
However, as of the end of October 2024, Osimhen had a haul of 22 goals in 37 senior national team appearances … and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before this ‘Seamless Striker,’ who is usually ‘unseen’ by opposing defenders becomes Nigeria’s all-time top scorer and team captain.
