Southampton reportedly wanted to bring Victor Osimhen to the Premier League before he joined Ligue 1 runners-up Lille instead.
Life without Nicholas Pepe and Rafael Leao doesn’t look too bad for Lille. At least, as long as Victor Osimhen continues to find the target with such impressive regularity.
Coming off the bench to replace the injured Loic Remy, Osimhen wasted no time in ripping into St Etienne’s goal difference on Wednesday night. He coolly slotted home the opener without a care in the world before putting the icing on a terrific 3-0 win at the Stade Geoffrey Guichard with the most clinical swivel and shot from the edge of the box.
Following another double on his Ligue 1 debut against Nantes, the Nigerian international now has four goals in just two starts for Lille.
Joining from Chaleroi for a fee of around £10.5 million, according to Get French Football News, Osimhen already looks like an inspired replacement for Arsenal’s record-signing Pepe and AC Milan newbie Leao.
So Southampton fans should be forgiven for wondering what sort of impact Osimhem – who won the Golden Boot and the Silver Ball during Nigeria’s U17 World Cup winning campaign – would have had at St Mary’s.
Le Soir claims that the Saints were keen on the former Wolfsburg striker and Osimhen is pretty much the perfect example of the type of player Ralph Hasenhuttl wants at St Mary’s.
“He combines his quality with a good mentality and he is the right profile of player that we want to sign – still in the early part of his career, already with a lot of talent, but also with a great amount of potential that I believe we can help him to fulfil,” Hasenhuttl said of new signing Moussa Djenepo back in June, as reported by ITV.
Southampton have struggled badly for goals in recent seasons and Osimhen, from what he’s shown at Lille, is capable of finding the net with at a remarkable rate.
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