Former Manchester City right-back Micah Richards and ex-Barcelona striker Gary Lineker were left stunned by Victor Osimhen’s decision to join Galatasaray on a four-year deal, Soccernet.ng reports.
The Super Eagles star spent the 2024/2025 on loan with the Turkish Super Lig side as Napoli’s €150m asking fee wasn’t matched by any club despite the striker’s insistence on leaving Naples.
The 26-year-old enjoyed his loan spell with the Turkish champions last season, scoring 37 goals and providing seven assists in 41 games.
Many expected Galatasaray to be Osimhen’s stepping-stone club that’ll open the path to the English Premier League but it came as a surprise to see one of the best strikers in Europe moving to a club outside the top-five leagues.
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“Osimhen signed a deal for four years at Galatasaray in Turkey. I can’t believe it,” Micah Richards said on The Rest is Football podcast.
“A top player like that should be playing. Galatasaray is a massive club but in terms of European football he could do better than that, in my opinion.
‘He’d be top a three No.9 in the Premier League. Fact. Joao Pedro is unbelievable, but you cannot say he’s better than Osimhen. Not a chance,” the CBS Sports Golazo pundit continued.
Lineker‘s thoughts on Osimhen‘s Galatasaray move
The former England striker was also left in awe by the striker’s decision to head to Turkey in the prime of his career but had also heard a theory as to why there wasn’t much interest from top clubs in the player this summer as there had been in the past.
“I saw Osimhen play a couple of times against Leicester when they were in the Europa League,’ the former Leicester City forward added.
“He was so impressive and I’ve followed his career because of that. He was absolutely brilliant for Napoli. I mean, he was sensational.
“I do hear on the grapevine that a reason one or two of the clubs are a little bit nervous is that he sometimes goes missing for a few days. So, there’s apparently some kind of slight question mark as to his character in that sense,” Lineker concluded.
Former Napoli coach, Francesco Calzona recently mentioned Osimhen doesn’t take kindly to criticism and urged the Nigerian forward to do better as that’s his only flaw.
Osimhen is Galatasaray’s most-expensive recruit in the club’s history, and he’ll be spending the next four years at RAMS Park creating memories with the Cim Bom Aslan.