Victor Osimhen has admitted his admiration for Erling Haaland and says his comparison with the Norwegian can only inspire him to do more.
The Nigerian, 24, tops the Serie A scoring chart with 21 goals in 23 appearances while Haaland has netted nine more (30) to lead the top scorers’ race in the Premier League.
Osimhen said in an interview with the Daily Mail he has been following Haaland’s progress right from when he was at Borussia Dortmund.
‘I play with Leo Ostigard at Napoli, who is very good friends with Haaland and plays for Norway with him,’ Osimhen told the Daily Mail.
‘I am a fan of the Bundesliga so I’ve followed him for a while and every weekend he seems to score two, three, four goals. Ostigard spoke to me a lot about him, how hard he trained, then one day he said: ‘If you want, I can bring you his shirt.’ I said: ‘Of course, bro.’
‘So he spoke to Haaland, who also asked for my shirt, so we swapped them through Ostigard. He is one of the best of his generation so to be compared with him – and considered one of the best strikers in the world – only inspires me to do more.
‘I can score four goals in a game, I can provide more assists, I can do many more things as I have the quality to execute them. I need to work even harder and then at the end of my career I can hopefully look back and say yes, I did some wonderful things.
‘Everyone watches the EPL (Premier League), it is really competitive, but Serie A is also one of the strongest leagues. When Cristiano Ronaldo played there, he said the same thing. I am really happy to be there.’