You know that moment in a relationship when one stupid thing breaks everything that was good? That is what happened between Victor Osimhen and Napoli. The man won them a Scudetto — their first Serie A title in 33 years. He scored 26 league goals, became the first African player to win the Capocannoniere, and turned himself into a god in Naples. The tifosi loved him. The club made tens of millions marketing him. And then, in September 2023, some social media manager somewhere at SSC Napoli posted a TikTok video mocking Osimhen for missing a penalty — a squeaky, sped-up voice over his face, followed by the missed kick — and the whole thing collapsed. Something broke forever, as Osimhen himself would later say. This article tells the full story: how it unravelled, what Napoli\’s president admitted in April 2026, how the €75m Galatasaray move finally ended the chapter, and — most importantly — what Nigerian fans think about all of it.
The Glory Days: What Osimhen Actually Did for Napoli
Before we get into the drama, e good make we first establish the facts of what Victor Osimhen did for SSC Napoli, because the full story makes no sense without understanding the scale of what he delivered.
Osimhen joined Napoli from Lille in July 2020 for €70 million — a record signing for the club at the time. He was 21 years old, coming from the French league, and the pressure was enormous. He did not just meet expectations. He exceeded them in ways that few strikers anywhere in Europe could claim. In the 2022/23 Serie A season, Osimhen scored 26 league goals in 32 appearances and won the Capocannoniere — the Serie A golden boot. More importantly, he was the engine of a Napoli team that won the Scudetto by 16 points, ending a 33-year wait for a league title that the city of Naples had been suffering through since Diego Maradona\’s era. The emotional parallels were not lost on anyone. Napoli. A black Nigerian striker. A city in tears. Beautiful football. Historic title. Some Neapolitans called him the second Maradona. Omo.
In total, Osimhen contributed 76 goals and 18 assists in 133 appearances across all competitions for Napoli. His partnership with Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was one of the most exciting attacking combinations in European football during that period. The man gave everything. His body, his energy, his goals. And then they posted a video mocking him on TikTok.
The TikTok Video That Broke Everything
September 2023. Napoli vs Bologna. Osimhen appeals for a penalty and misses a spot kick. In the aftermath, whoever runs Napoli\’s official social media account posts a TikTok featuring Osimhen\’s penalty appeal with a silly, sped-up squeaky voice dubbed over it, followed by the clip of him missing the kick. It is the kind of thing a secondary school student might post about a rival — childish, demeaning, and completely inappropriate for a Serie A club to post about their own highest-paid, most valuable player.
Osimhen\’s representatives immediately condemned it and threatened legal action. The video was deleted — but not before millions had seen it and the damage was done. In response, Osimhen deleted almost all Napoli-related images from his personal Instagram, a public act that made his feelings crystal clear without needing a single word.
In a February 2026 interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Osimhen finally spoke about it in full. His words were unambiguous. \”After Napoli posted that video on TikTok, something broke forever,\” he said. He described feeling humiliated and isolated. He spoke about racist insults that followed in the online reaction to the video. He made it clear that from that moment, his relationship with the club was irreparably damaged. No amount of contract extensions or salary offers could fix what had been broken in public, in front of the world.
For Nigerian fans following Osimhen\’s journey, this was not just a football story — it was a representation of something they understood deeply: a Black African man excelling at the highest level, winning everything, and then being disrespected in a way no European player would have been. The reaction in Nigeria was immediate and furious. Social media was ablaze. \”He won them a title and they posted that rubbish?\” was the common sentiment in every Nigerian football group from Lagos to Kano. E pain people for real.
The Transfer Saga: €130m Ignored, Loans, and the Long Goodbye
After the TikTok incident, Osimhen\’s desire to leave Napoli was an open secret. The 2023/24 season was chaotic. Despite signing a new contract extension in December 2023 — which included a release clause of approximately €130 million and a new salary of €10 million net per season — it was essentially a commercial arrangement to protect the club\’s asset, not a genuine recommitment from either party. Coach Antonio Conte, who took charge for the 2024/25 season, was honest about the situation after the summer window failed to deliver a sale: \”If we had been able to sell Osimhen, it would have been an even better situation.\”
The stalemate during the 2024/25 season — Osimhen excluded from Napoli\’s official Serie A squad for a period, loaned to Galatasaray for the 2024/25 season, the club unable to find a buyer willing to match the €130m release clause — became one of the most drawn-out transfer sagas in European football. Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid — big clubs circled, but nobody triggered the release clause at that number.
Then in July 2025, the saga ended. Galatasaray, who had Osimhen on loan and watched him become the best striker in Turkish football, made the move permanent. The deal was structured at €75 million — €40m upfront and €35m to be paid to Napoli by 2026. Critically, the agreement included a clause preventing Osimhen from being sold to an Italian club for two years. Galatasaray also signed him to a four-year contract starting 2025/26 at a net guaranteed salary of €15 million per season — making him the most expensive player in the history of the Süper Lig.
De Laurentiis Admits the Mistake — April 2026
In what Nigerian fans received as a very late acknowledgement of the obvious, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis publicly admitted in April 2026 that he made a mistake in how the Osimhen transfer was handled. The confession was significant not just for what it said but for when it came — two years after the relationship had broken down, and only after Osimhen had gone on to thrive at Galatasaray and become Nigeria\’s leading scorer.
The mathematics of the error are damning. Napoli signed Osimhen for €70 million. They sold him for €75 million — a nominal profit of €5m. But the release clause they had set at €130 million, had any club triggered it in the summer of 2023 or 2024 when Osimhen was at his peak, would have delivered a €60 million profit above what they received from Galatasaray. De Laurentiis essentially confirmed: the mishandling of the player relationship — the TikTok video, the public dysfunction, the squad exclusions, the prolonged uncertainty — cost Napoli approximately €60 million in lost transfer value. That is the price of a TikTok post that should never have gone up.
For Nigerians watching, the admission was vindicating but also frustrating. The damage to Osimhen — the racial abuse, the public humiliation, the year of uncertainty — cannot be repaid by an owner admitting mistakes three years later. The money lost is a footnote. The disrespect shown to one of Africa\’s greatest footballers is the real headline.
Nigerian Fan Reaction: Pride, Pain, and Perspective
I have spoken to Nigerian football fans across several platforms — WhatsApp groups, Twitter/X, Nairaland threads, viewing centre discussions — and the consensus is layered. Nigerians are not a monolithic fan base and the Osimhen-Napoli story touches on things that go beyond football.
The dominant emotion is pride in Osimhen\’s response. He did not sulk, did not go to Saudi Arabia for the money, did not fade. He went to Galatasaray, became a phenomenon, hit 20 goals in a season, won the club their Super Lig title, reached 200 career goals, and continued closing in on Yekini\’s Nigeria scoring record. The best revenge, as they say, is to be unbothered and extraordinary. Osimhen chose extraordinary. For more on his current form and Super Eagles record chase, our full Super Eagles squad analysis has the complete picture.
The second emotion is anger at how it was handled. Many Nigerian fans point out, correctly, that no European player of Osimhen\’s standing would have been treated the way Napoli treated him post-Scudetto. The TikTok video, the public squad exclusion, the drawn-out transfer saga that left him in limbo — none of it was dignified treatment for a man who had just delivered the most important season in Napoli\’s recent history. The racial dimension of the online abuse that followed the TikTok was particularly painful for Nigerian fans who have watched their heroes play in European leagues for decades and understand the particular pressures Black African players face.
The third emotion, expressed by the more pragmatic fans, is simple satisfaction at the journey. From a Lagos family. Eight goals at the 2015 U-17 World Cup. Wolfsburg, Charleroi, Lille, Napoli, Galatasaray. Twenty goals this season. Thirty-five international goals. A Scudetto. A Super Lig title in progress. Two hundred career goals at 27 years old. Whatever happened with Napoli, the narrative is still being written — and the chapters ahead, including breaking Yekini\’s record, look more glorious than the painful one just closed.
What This Means for Osimhen\’s Legacy at Napoli
Here is the honest assessment: despite everything, Osimhen\’s legacy in Naples is secure. The tifosi — the real ones, not the social media accounts — remember 2022/23. They remember the goals, the energy, the title. Scudetto campaigns are generational moments. You do not forget the man who delivered one after 33 years of waiting.
The dysfunction of the departure does not erase what was built. It just makes the story messier and more human. Football is full of partnerships that produced greatness and ended badly — this is one of them. What matters now is what Osimhen does next. At Galatasaray, he has already shown the world that Naples was not his ceiling. It was just one chapter.
For Nigerian fans, he remains exactly what he has always been: the Flying Eagle who became the Flying Antelope, the Lagos boy who conquered Naples and then Istanbul, the striker who scored when Nigeria needed goals most. The Napoli chapter is over. The Nigeria chapter — Yekini\’s record, AFCON 2027, the legacy — is still being written. Follow every goal and every Super Eagles fixture on livescore24.ng/, and check our Super Eagles hub for news and updates every time Chelle names a squad. For all our predictions, visit livescore24.ng/predictions. And as always, our responsible gambling policy is there for anyone who bets on Osimhen markets — read it before you stake.
livescore24.ng/ Editorial Team. Sources: Soccernet NG, Sports Village Square, Morocco World News (La Gazzetta dello Sport interview), ESPN, Goal.com, Football In Nigeria. All facts verified as of May 2026.