Turkish Galatasaray striker, Nigerian Victor Osimhen, has admitted that he was badly treated during his final spell at Italian club Napoli.
The Napoli club’s TikTok account published a video mocking Osimhen’s missed penalty at the end of 2023, sparking widespread controversy and prompting the striker to delete photos of himself in the club’s shirt from his Instagram account.
In a statement to Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, Osimhen said: “I feel sorry for the Napoli fans, especially since I never told them what happened. Some people came to my house asking for an explanation. We talked and put myself in my shoes. After Napoli published that video on TikTok, something completely broke.”
He explained that some people used the opportunity to incite the public against him, even though his daughter is more Neapolitan than Nigerian, deleting a photo of him in a Napoli uniform from Instagram.
Ignore false apologies and rumors
Osimhen pointed out that there was no formal apology from the club after the video and that he had only been contacted by club president De Laurentiis a few times during a period when rumors were circulating about his late arrival at the stadium and disagreements with teammates, stressing that all these rumors were false and that he was grateful to Napoli’s fans for putting the club above all else.
feel exploited and abused
“I had an honorary contract with the club president and was allowed to leave the following summer, but that promise was not fully fulfilled. They wanted me to play everywhere. They treated me like a dog. Go there, go there, do this, do that. I worked so hard to build my career and this kind of treatment was unacceptable. I’m not a puppet.”
Conte tries to repair relations
“Coach Antonio Conte tried to mend our relationship, even though he had told me that I was no longer wanted by the team. As soon as I arrived, Conte called me into his office and said that he was aware of the situation, but that he still wanted me to stay. I explained to him that I wanted to work together, but I had made my own decision. I did not want to stay in a place where I was not happy,” he concluded.
