Napoli’s Victor Osimhen has spoken out about a possible transfer to the Premier League amidst rumours of Manchester United’s interest.
The 23-year-old scored 18 goals for Napoli last season, including two against Leicester City and one against Barcelona in the Europa League.
United have been credited with an interest in the Nigerian as they look to replace the outgoing Edinson Cavani as an alternative centre forward to Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis is a notoriously difficult negotiator and has already signalled his intention to drive a hard bargain by slapping a €100 million (£86m) asking price on his star player.
Speaking after Nigeria’s 10-0 drubbing of São Tomé and Principe yesterday, in which he scored four goals, Osimhen said:
“They would like me in Spain or England, I know there are many voices.
“I don’t think it’s the right time to talk about it.
“Now I just want to go on vacation with my family, empty my head and recharge my batteries, then we will think about the rest.”
The comments could certainly be taken as a hint that the 6ft 2inch striker would be open to exploring a move to the Premier League or La Liga.
And according to Gazzetta dello Sport, United’s name is currently prominent.
“Manchester United is a strong name, but we cannot exclude the very rich Newcastle and the always attentive Arsenal,” the outlet reports.
“In Germany – not mentioned by the player – Bayern Munich could [be interested] in case of Robert Lewandowski’s farewell: anything can happen.”
As with Darwin Nunez, who yesterday joined Liverpool from Benfica, it seems highly unlikely that United would deal at anything close to that €100 million mark.
ESPN’s Rob Dawson suggested yesterday that United will have to sell Anthony Martial to raise funds for a striker, which in itself poses a number of problems.
This transfer is therefore a long shot, but nonetheless an exciting prospect in principle.