English Premier league side, Chelsea, have renewed the race to prise away Nigeria International striker Victor Osimhen from Italian Serie A side Napoli after they reportedly hijacked Arsenal’s deal for Ukraine star Mykhailo Mudryk at the weekend.
The Blues will pay a total of €100m (£88.5m) for the 22-year-old Ukraine international with €70m (£62m) up front and €30m (£26.5m) in add-ons.
Arsenal, according to British tabloid, Metro, were favourites to land Mudryk this January transfer window and the player was keen on a move to the Emirates but the Gunners were not prepared to pay his price tag while Chelsea also offered him a much more lucrative contract.
But our correspondent gathered that Chelsea must be ready to cough out a staggering £180m (about N99,641,309,220.00) to equally snatch the Nigerian striker from other willing EPL sides including Manchester United and Arsenal.
On Friday, Osimhen yet proved he’s one of the hottest strikers in Europe after he grabbed a brace in Napoli’s flattering 5-1 home win against Juventus to take hi season’s tally to impressive 12 goals.
“Chelsea scouts watched him ( Osimhen ) against Juventus few days ago,” a top UK-based football intermediary told Nation Sport last night.“ In fact, the board have been briefed on his situation.
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“But the issue is that Napoli President , Aurelio De Laurentiis, wants a record bid for Osimhen and has since raised the transfer fee for Osimhem from £85m to at least £180m or thereabouts.”
With their first Serie A title in sight since the 1989/90 season following Friday’s massacre of Juventus, it remains to be seen if Napoli can let go Osimhen amid media adulations for the 24-year-old former Lille star.
He continued: “ The truth is that Chelsea are ready to splash the cash to get Osimhen but the only snag is that Laurentiis feels Osimhen is the best striker in the world now and believed he can get an offer that should supersede the Serie A transfer record of €117m Juventus paid Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018.”
“Chelsea needs a striker in the mould of their legend, Didier Drogba and they feel Osimhen fits the bill perfectly following his spectacular performances for Napoli especially this season.
“ In fact, the Chelsea hierarchy needs assurance that he (Osimhen) will not struggle in the EPL and the scouts are sure he won’t because he’ been playing against some tough defenders in Italy,” he added.
