As the debate over the future of Victor Osimhen at Italian champions Napoli continues, certain revelations is being made about how he was signed by the Serie A side three years ago.
Napoli signed Osimhen from French Ligue 1 side Lille for a fixed fee of €50m with three players going to the French side as part of the deal taking the total worth to around €75m. He was signed after scoring 13 league goals in 27 games in his only season at the club.
The man behind the move that brought him to Napoli was former sporting director of the team Cristiano Giuntoli. He recently left his role to pick up the same position at Juventus, but he leaves Napoli with the reputation of the man who put together the squad that won the club their first league title in 33 years.
It was Giuntoli that brought the likes of Osimhen, Kim Min-Jae and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia to the club. All the above mentioned players were key to the club’s title win last season but he almost ran into trouble with the president of the team Aurelio De Laurentiis, when he took up the risk of paying €50m for Osimhen.
According to Raffaele Auriemma who spoke to Radio 24 during the show Tutti Convocati. Giuntoli imposed Osimhen on the president, who issued him a query for spending that huge amount on a player during the covid period, when clubs were experiencing financial difficulties.
” Osimhen was taken by Giuntoli and imposed on De Laurentiis for over 50 million euros. The president in the covid period issued him a query for spending that much when teams were having a tough time financially. Today he has Giuntoli to thank if he makes capital gains from the sale of the Nigerian”.
Daniel Martins