Napoli’s star forward Victor Osimhen has signed a contract extension tying him to the Serie A champions until 2026, but his day did not end well, as he was sent off in a 2-0 defeat at Roma.
The Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, posted pictures of himself early on Saturday with Osimhen smiling, signing paperwork and shaking hands, along with the word “done.” The club put up the same pictures four minutes later with the caption “Victor & Napoli together until 2026.”
It is more good news for the freshly crowned African player of the year. His current deal was set to expire in 2025 and Italian media reported that his salary has been more than doubled to €10m (£8.7m) a season, with a release clause between €120m and €130m.
Napoli reportedly refused an offer of more than €200m for Osimhen from a team in Saudi Arabia in the close season. Osimhen, who turns 25 next week, was signed from Lille in 2020 for a fee of around €75m and the Nigeria international went on to establish himself as one of the most exciting strikers in the world.
He helped fire Napoli to the Serie A title last season, when his 26 goals made him the first African player to finish as the Italian league’s top goalscorer.
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Serie A roundup: Vlahovic keeps Juve on leaders’ tail
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A late Dusan Vlahovic goal kept Juventus on the heels of the Serie A leaders in a 2-1 win at Frosinone. Massimiliano Allegri’s side took the lead through Kenan Yildiz after 12 minutes but were pegged back six minutes into the second half by Jaime Báez’s equaliser before the Serbia international struck the winner with nine minutes remaining. The win put Juventus a point behind the leaders, Internazionale, who then extended the gap to four points again with a 2-0 win in the later kick-off. In the other matches, Bologna beat Atalanta 1-0, Torino drew 1-1 with Udinese and Verona were 2-0 winners against Cagliari.
In La Liga, Marcos Llorente’s second-half goal earned Atlético Madrid a hard-fought 1-0 win over Sevilla on Saturday as the hosts reclaimed third spot.
Osimhen had a mixed start to this season after Rudi Garcia replaced the title-winning coach, Luciano Spalletti. Indeed, a departure in the winter transfer window seemed a distinct possibility in September when an angry Osimhen deleted almost all pictures of himself in Napoli’s shirt from his social media accounts after the club posted a mocking video of him online.
The striker was also injured while on international duty and while he was out, the club replaced Garcia with Walter Mazzarri. Osimhen has nevertheless scored seven league goals this season, putting him third in the scoring charts.
He failed to find the net at Roma and instead picked up two yellow cards, as Lorenzo Pellegrini and Romelu Lukaku scored to give the home side a 2-0 win against nine men.
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Matteo Politano was the first to go, in the 66th minute, for kicking out at Nicola Zalewski when the Roma player pulled him back by his jersey. The opening goal came 10 minutes later when Pellegrini, only on the pitch five minutes, hit a half-volley on the turn into the top corner when the ball fell to him after a mis-hit shot from Stephan El Shaarawy.
Osimhen picked up a second yellow card in the 86th minute, and Napoli had goalkeeper Alex Meret to thank for keeping the score at 1-0 before Lukaku wrapped up the win in the 96th minute with Napoli chasing a late equaliser.
