Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen has explained why he turned his back on bigger clubs to sign permanently for the Galatasaray, Footynaija reports.
The 27-year-old had no shortage of options. Chelsea, Manchester United, Juventus and Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal all registered serious interest in the striker, with the latter tabling a reported €40 million-a-year offer. He turned all of it down.
For Osimhen, the answer was simple, even if it baffled everybody else.
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“When I left Napoli, do you know how many people told me, ‘Do not go to Turkey. Are you crazy?’” he told Players’ Tribune.
“But I think with my heart. How can I go from the emotion of Napoli to just any club? Impossible. Boring.”
What the Nigerian wanted was passion. And he found it on the night his flight landed in Istanbul, when 3,000 Galatasaray supporters showed up at a private airport in the middle of the night, having tracked his flight in real time.
That alone told him everything he needed to know.
Head coach Okan Buruk also played his part. He called Osimhen personally before the move was confirmed, telling him that the club would back him through the difficult moments, not just the good ones.
For a player who had endured a very public and bitter fallout with Napoli, including the infamous TikTok incident that he says broke something irreparably between him and the club, that assurance meant a great deal.
Family sealed it. His young daughter, who had grown up around Galatasaray supporters during the loan spell, had already made her own choice.
“She’s become more of a Galatasaray fan than I am,” the former Napoli striker said with a smile.
Galatasaray paid a club-record €75 million to make the deal permanent last summer. Osimhen, who scored 37 goals in 41 appearances during his loan spell as the Istanbul side won a third consecutive Super Lig title, has since repaid that faith emphatically. Most recently, he delivered two assists as the Turkish champions dismantled Juventus 5-2 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League knockout-phase playoff.
