Galatasaray President, Dursun Aydın Özbek has admitted that the signing of Victor Osimhen on a loan deal from Napoli is a very important transfer for Turkish football.
Özbek said this after Galatasaray officially announced on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement on the temporary transfer of Osimhen.
“Victor is a very important transfer for Galatasaray and Turkish sports. Especially in our struggle in Europe and our goal of becoming the fifth star in Turkey, Galatasaray has very high expectations from him.
“I am sure he will meet these expectations. As a Galatasaray fan, having such world-star footballers in our club pleases me, the board of directors and Galatasaray fans a lot.
“I wish him success. Hopefully, he will make a great contribution to our struggle this year,” Özbek said with the Turkish Super Lig club extremely happy to sign him.
Meanwhile, GiveMeSport correspondent, Ben Jacobs has detailed how Napoli frustrated Osimhen from making his preferred move.
It was clear that Paris Saint-Germain really wanted to sign him but the deal failed to go through before the Nigerian striker had links with a move to either Al Ahli or Chelsea.
Osimhen was thereafter left stranded following the decision of Napoli to drop him from their Serie A squad list for the 2024/25 season.
That would have meant the Super Eagles striker would go no fewer than four months without seeing competitive football action, however, Galatasaray came to his rescue by signing him on loan.
GiveMeSport correspondent, Jacobs has now detailed his transfer saga with Napoli in a post he shared on his X account.
“Victor Osimhen saga. Napoli insisted on the €120m+ release clause for much of the summer,” Jacobs wrote on Tuesday morning.
“PSG agreed terms with Osimhen but Napoli asked for €100m+ and the French Ligue 1 champions walked away.
“Al-Ahli agreed terms with the striker and an €80m package only for the price to go up after Napoli learned of the Ivan Toney fee.
“Chelsea offered both a loan and later, a loan with obligation but could not agree terms with Osimhen.
“Osimhen’s agent, Roberto Calenda made it clear his client didn’t want a temporary move. This stopped Chelsea from making quicker progress at the same time as sending Romelu Lukaku the other way.
“Osimhen agrees to join Galatasaray on a straight loan with a January break clause. Napoli still plan to sell him in 2025.”
