By Mike Awoyinfa
I hope this letter finds you in the best of spirits. On behalf of soccer-loving Nigerians, I write to extend my heartfelt congratulations on your incredible performance in the recently concluded Serie A season. Your hard work and dedication to football have not gone unnoticed, and you have undoubtedly been a pivotal player in helping Napoli clinch the Scudetto after 33 years, following in the footsteps of the legendary Diego Maradona.
To be compared or mentioned in the same breath with a soccer demigod like Diego Maradona is not a small achievement. It’s the ultimate nirvana – the highest accolade any footballer can ever dream of. I am so touched by the way Napoli fans idolise you, wear your famous mask and chant your name in stadiums as their soccer messiah and reviver. I have seen murals featuring Maradona crowning you as his successor. Nothing stops you from becoming a better footballer than Maradona as long as you live and you keep perfecting your skill.
I read in one interview where you said your goal is to win the African Footballer of the Year award. Ah, with what you have achieved this year as the highest goal scorer in the Italian league (with 47 goals beating George Weah’s record of 46 goals) and piloting Napoli to win the Scudetto which has eluded Napoli for 33 years, I think you more than deserve to be crowned the King of African Football this year. The question then is: Who else, if not the Victorious Victor Osimhen, the one who has been on fire all through the year?
From my analysis of your skills, performance, and statistics, I must say that your contribution to Napoli’s success this season is invaluable. Your energy, speed, positioning and agility on the pitch were nothing short of awe-inspiring, and your ability to score crucial goals in important matches is remarkable.
Everybody loves a fairy tale, a Cinderella story. Yours is an inspiring story that excites me as a journalist and biographer: how you were born into poverty, grew under harsh impoverished circumstances, selling bottled iced-water inside the Lagos traffic along with your sisters selling oranges, all in the bid to support the family economically. Such was the depth of poverty that according to you “no one could imagine that anything good could come from the Osimhen family.” It was as if the curse of poverty had been tied like juju around your neck and around each member of your family. Then your mother died. And your sorrow knew no bounds. But God had a plan for you.
In your free time, you took to playing football bare-footed together with the children of the neighbourhood. Topmost among your heroes was Didier Drogba of Chelsea, a player who was simply unstoppable and unplayable. An attacker who was a terror to defenders and to goalkeepers alike. You watched Drogba on YouTube and learnt a few tricks from him which you perfected on the harsh, dusty pitch which was your training ground. “Drogba shaped my game,” you said, giving credit to whom credit is due.
Practice makes perfect. You continued to improve day after day and time after time. There were challenges and obstacles leading to rejections. They thought you were not good enough for the local clubs. But you forged on. You never gave up. God was on your side. Then the light of God started shining on you. And coaches started seeing something good in you. Then you started rising from one team to another. Until you became a member of the Golden Eaglets and playing in the FIFA Under 17 championship as a 16-year-old whose talents and exploits were beamed to the watching world that stood transfixed. There you emerged the top scorer and set an all-time record for the most goals scored by a single player in a single FIFA U17 World Cup competition. You had earlier emerged as the best scorer at the U17 Afcon in 2015 even though the Golden Eaglets didn’t win the championship.
With that background, the world was your oyster, yet you still suffered rejections by two clubs in Europe before Lille of France finally signed a deal with you. From Lille, you later moved to Napoli to become their star player and awaited messiah. To sum up, from humble beginnings in Nigeria, you worked hard to hone your skills and become a professional footballer. Your talent caught the eye of scouts across Europe, and soon, you found yourself playing for top-tier clubs in France and Italy.
In the midst of this, you experienced major setbacks, the prominent one being when you suffered a horrific head collision injury with Inter Milan’s defender Skriniar and had a fractured skull which drew out your eye socket in Napoli’s 3-2 loss at San Siro on November 21, 2021. You underwent immediate surgery and had six plaques and 24 screws attached to your face and was forced to miss the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon. The injury kept you out of action for several months. I remember you also tested positive for COVID. What didn’t you suffer? However, you did not let all that deter you from pursuing your dream. Instead, you worked even harder to recover and get back on the pitch, and your resilience paid off in the form of your incredible performances this season.
Your dedication to your craft and your relentless pursuit of excellence is something that every aspiring footballer can learn from. Your ability to rise to the occasion and deliver when it mattered most is a testament to your mental strength and your unwavering focus on achieving your goals.
As a football fan and historian of sorts, I do understand the significance of Napoli winning the Scudetto, and I know that this achievement is something that will be remembered for years to come. The fact that Napoli was able to achieve this feat after 33 years, with you playing a significant role in the process, is a testament to the resilience and determination of the team.
I am sure that you must be feeling a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment right now, and rightfully so. Your contribution to Napoli’s success this season has been immense, and you have cemented your place as one of the most promising young talents in football today.
Your hard work, dedication, and perseverance have paid off, and I have no doubt that you will continue to achieve great things in your footballing career.
Once again, congratulations on a remarkable season, and I wish you all the very best for the future. I pray you are crowned as Africa’s best footballer of the year. I go to bookshops in Europe and all I see are biographies of non-Nigerian soccer stars who are not better than you. It makes me wonder: why is no one writing books on Nigerian soccer legends like Jay Jay Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo and of course you Victor Osimhen? I hope one day to write your biography. I will try and find the time. Till then, keep on scoring and winning!
