Victor Osimhen, a striker for Napoli, is anticipated to command a transfer fee of at least €100 million ($109 million) from Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain.
Osimhen, 24, has emerged as one of the top attackers in Europe this season after helping Napoli win its first Serie A championship since 1990. The Nigerian international is two goals ahead of Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman in the race for the Capocannoniere title as Serie A’s leading scorer with 14 league goals. He has scored 15 goals in 20 appearances in all competitions.
Osimhen has emerged as the top choice for the clubs wanting to strengthen their offensive options for the next season after Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Darwin Nunez (Liverpool), and Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) all moved to their current clubs last summer
.According to other sources, United was also contemplating transfers for FC Salzburg’s Benjamin Sesko and Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur. Dusan Vlahovic, a forward for Juventus who joined from Fiorentina for €70 million in January 2022, may also become a choice if the Italian team is forced to sell the Serbian international owing to the financial burden of losing 15 points for transfer violations. Osimhen, though, is already high on both United’s and PSG’s lists of priority targets as a result of his performance for Napoli this year.
But according to a source, Napoli won’t sell Osimhen for less than €100 million, and the potential that United and PSG would both make significant efforts to get the player has increased the likelihood that the price will go even higher. Osimhen joined Napoli in a €70 million transfer from Lille in 2020, and his contract there have two years remaining to run.
United signed a six-month loan agreement with Burnley’s Dutch international forward Wout Weghorst in order to avoid signing an 18-month contract for a permanent player. By doing this, the club was free to pursue the elite center forward manager Erik ten Hag has prioritized this summer.
PSG is still upset with Chelsea for the botched Ziyech transfer.
Although Paris Saint-Germain defeated Montpellier 3-1 on Wednesday, the failed deadline-day move of Hakim Ziyech the night before dominated club conversations. According to sources at the Ligue 1 champions, they are upset with Chelsea for letting the transaction to fall through and have vowed never to work with the London club again.
PSG accuses Chelsea of being three times late in submitting the necessary documentation to complete the loan of the Moroccan international. The first document had an error, while the next two were received unsigned.
Even if the paperwork was in place on the fourth try, the French league was unable to register the sale since it was 12:03 a.m. GMT in France, three minutes past the deadline.
The fact that PSG attempted to phone Chelsea five times after the initial error, but no one picked up made matters worse from their perspective. PSG is still dissatisfied despite the English club’s apology and justification that they were focused on concluding the British-record signing of Enzo Fernandez.
Madrid’s belief in Mendy is put to the test
Real Madrid has reservations about Ferland Mendy’s long-term viability as the team’s starting left-back, and those worries have been made worse by the defender’s most recent injury setback.
The 23-year-old Mendy sustained a thigh injury in Madrid’s Copa del Rey victory over Atletico Madrid last week, and he will now miss both the opening leg of Madrid’s Champions League round-of-16 match with Liverpool as well as the FIFA Club World Cup tournament in Morocco. Coach Carlo Ancelotti was obliged to use Eduardo Camavinga at left-back last weekend since David Alaba was also sidelined due to injury.
According to the media, Mendy’s performance level in recent months has raised questions within the club. In July 2019, Madrid acquired Mendy from Lyon in a €48 million deal. At the time, Zinedine Zidane had selected Mendy as Marcelo’s replacement. Since then, the full-back has been a fixture in the first squad, but ongoing injuries have hampered his development and raised concerns about the caliber of his offensive contribution.
This week, Madrid pushed to reach an agreement on a contract with left-back Fran Garcia of Rayo Vallecano, who is also 23 and a product of the Madrid junior system and will return to the Bernabeu this summer. Since his departure in 2020, the club has kept an eye on Garcia, and they have been pleased with his growth.
Madrid is optimistic that Mendy will realize his potential and continue to hold the position of first choice, with Garcia serving as a strong backup, despite concerns over his performance level over the last year. They are also aware that it would be challenging to repay the money they paid to sign him three and a half years ago should they decide to try to transfer him on.
