Investigation into likely financial impropriety in the striker’s transfer deal threatens the hopes of player and club
Winger Luigi Liguori, defender Claudio Manzi, goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis, and striker Ciro Palmieri featured under the former Napoli Youth Team setup
By Rasheed Adewuyi
The hope of Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen to win the Italian Serie A league title this season may be dashed following the discovery of financial impropriety in the deal that brought him from Lille to Naples.
According to the UK Sun tabloid, the Italian FA has intensified its investigation of the €70.1 million (Euro) transfer deal between Napoli and Lille that brokered the transfer of the Nigerian forward from Ligue One to Serie A.
Juventus F.C. suffered a fifteen points deduction penalty for false accounting practices that misleadingly inflated players’ transfer values and impugned the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rule.
Reports from Italy suggests that the city of Naples prosecutor office has asked for a six month extension to an investigation into the transfer and will make its decision at the end of its investigation known in the summer. This portends bad news for striker and club- SSC Napoli-who currently sits atop the Serie A table with a 19 points cushion between the club and their nearest contenders.
The UK Sun tabloid also stated that, “It looks as though Napoli may have done something similar because about €17.5 million of the Osimhen transfer to Napoli was listed as valuation for four players who went the other way to Lille.”
They were right winger Luigi Liguori, defender Claudio Manzi, goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis, and striker Ciro Palmieri. None of the players ever played for Lille,” The sun pointed out.
Sports Joust reliably gathered that Napoli could be automatically relegated, fined a huge sum of money or penalized with fifteen to twenty points deduction by the Italian Football Association, if found guilty at the end of the investigation.
This development could ultimately scupper Osimhen’s hopes and aspirations for the entire season, after the Napoli striker had earlier said he would love to win the Scudetto this year and the Africa cup of nations in Cote D’ Ivoire early next year before thinking of playing in the 2026 World Cup slated for the United States of America, Canada and Mexico.
Osimhen has been on fire in Napoli’s colors this season with a total of twenty-five goals turnover so far. His goals has fired up the hopes of the City of Naples faithful, the Club, and its millions of fans base into nursing the possibility of actualizing an over thirty years old dream and prayers to end their scudetto title winning drought this season.
