African Footballer of the Year forced to Dance naked in summer transfer market
By Ed Emeanua
Once hot ‘n’ sassy and in demand, Victor Osimhen has been stripped of his snazzy garbs and is now down to his natural suits.
The Nigeria forward has also been humiliated by his club Napoli and other mundane co-conspirators into a dehumanizing macabrely naked dance in football’s global summer transfer marketplace.
Under a global audience, the spectacle of the newly crowned African Footballer of the Year so brutally downgraded to a mere object for transactional Russian Roulette by the trifecta of Europe’s giant clubs in the continent’s summer Football Talent Trade Center is particularly troubling.
The trio of Paris Saint Germain (PSG), Chelsea FC, and SSC Napoli are now into the crescendo of their highly materialistic haggling for the commodity Osimhen in what amounts to a cahoot newer rendition of the tune of shaming of the African man that they have devoted the entirety of the summer transfer season to compose.
With the larger goal of profiteering and preserving the reputation for shrewd trading of talent, buyers, and sellers in the football market often take for granted the feeling of the player as they haggle over the value of his or her talent in players’ transfer.
The feverish news of these back-and-forth discussions over players’ move from one club to another may constitute good gossip in the common parlance of global football. However, the larger consequences of this transactional news on the psyche of players and their families are usually ignored.
If anything, Osimhen’s ongoing transfer rumors are nerve-racking as the various clubs involved in the haggle over his price seem to get brasher than usual.
Moreso, when the commodity under the bargain is the reigning African Footballer of the Year, the extended length of the transfer of the Napoli player makes a person think and think.
The caveat becomes, where Osimhen the reigning player of the year from any other continent outside Africa, would he have met a similar fate?
Considering that players with far fewer contemporary accomplishments than the Napoli forward have enjoyed more humane transfer deals all summer, the treatment of Osimhen in the transfer market is disheartening.
The departure from past transactions is that this time, the Nigerian is uncharacteristically being forced to dance naked in the mundane global transfer marketplace.
While the drama lasts, the Nigeria forward is compelled into a sideline observance, watching and sweating over the spectacle of powerful earthlings playing Russian Roulette with his life and future.
Osimhen’s speculated transfer this summer is unusual for moves by players of his caliber. The reigning African player of the year has become a pawn in the shameful game of disgrace spearheaded by his club Napoli.
Partenopei and their fellow accomplice in PSG, Chelsea, and what have you, have been deplorable, to say the least in the summer transfer market.
Osimhen has been forced to dance to their macabre drum beats under humbling circumstances. What is his sin? What has Osimhen done to Napoli to deserve such dehumanizing treatment?
The clubs involved in such a debasing summer transfer show of shame have enacted a demonstration of their skills at the game of Russian Roulette, which ultimately sets out the Nigerian as the ultimate collateral damage.
The European giant trifecta has spun around a solitary bullet in the chamber of a gun that they have pointed at the temple of the head of the current African footballer of the year.
As the football universe watches in bewilderment, each of these clubs has been taking turns to pull the trigger every passing day hoping it would go off. Osimhen has been made to sweat and dance to the conga beats of shame.
However, in a matter of days, Osimhen will dance no more in the summer transfer marketplace. One can only hope that the player positively translates this experience by allowing his footballing skills to do his talking in the future. Time will tell.
