Victor Osimhen: The Striker Manchester United Needs

Victor Osimhen has been circling the Premier League for years. The feeling, among some of Manchester United’s greatest strikers, is simple: it’s time he landed.

The Nigerian’s journey through Europe has never been straightforward, but it has been relentless. After a quiet start at Wolfsburg, he exploded on loan at Charleroi in Belgium, earning a move to Lille and then a headline transfer to Napoli. In Italy he became a champion, driving Napoli to the Serie A title and hitting the net 31 times across the 2022-23 campaign. Defenders struggled to live with his pace. Goalkeepers struggled to read his finishes. Scouts from England took notice.

United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea have all been linked with him at various stages, weighing up whether to make their move. None did. While the Premier League hesitated, Osimhen took a different route, landing in Turkey with Galatasaray. The goals never slowed. He has plundered 65 goals in 78 appearances there, numbers that would turn heads in any league.

For Andrew Cole, that output translates. The 1999 Treble winner knows what a United No.9 should look like, and when asked if Osimhen has the tools to thrive in England, he didn’t dress it up. Speaking to GOAL, he said: “He does. He scores goals. He scored goals in Italy and he's scoring goals in Turkey as well.”

Cole did not pretend it is as simple as writing a cheque. He pointed to the layers that sit behind any major transfer: “There’s many different factors in signing a player from a respective country. It's not all about just the salary or the transfer fee. There could be many different things that go on.”

The belief remains, though, that if Osimhen does arrive in the Premier League, he will be a problem for defenders. “If he does come to the Premier League, which I think he will be very good in the Premier League, you never know who he'll go to,” Cole added.

Inside Old Trafford, the conversation keeps looping back to the same point: United need a ruthless finisher. Patrice Evra did not bother to dress it up when he spoke to GOAL about what is missing. “A striker, someone who scores a goal. I think that's what I'm looking at. That's why for me, Osimhen is the best. He’s a perfect example.”

Evra is not alone. Louis Saha, another former United forward who understands the weight of that shirt, has long championed Osimhen as the kind of signing that can alter a club’s direction. “I really like Victor Osimhen. He's definitely got the character, he's got the quality,” Saha said previously. He pointed to the Nigerian’s body of work: success in France, a title in Italy with Napoli, and then a prolific spell in Turkey with Galatasaray – even if that move was not his dream scenario.

“He’s scored goals at every level. He’s got Champions League experience,” Saha stressed, before homing in on the intangible side of the striker’s appeal. For him, Osimhen is not just about numbers. “He’s got the type of personality and charisma that this United squad could really benefit from.”

That word – transformational – keeps surfacing whenever Saha talks about him. “I think he would be a transformational signing for Manchester United,” he said. The pressure Osimhen carried at Napoli, where he helped deliver the club’s first league title in 33 years, is central to Saha’s argument. If you can handle that, you can handle Old Trafford.

“If you think about the pressure that he was under at Napoli, firing the club to its first title in 33 years, then he’s the perfect man to lead the line for Manchester United. I think he would have a huge impact at United. I would love to see the club hierarchy move for him, I think he is exactly what we need.”

The Premier League has circled Osimhen for long enough. With United’s legends lining up behind the idea, the question now is not whether he fits the league – it’s whether the club finally has the courage and clarity to go and get him.