Osimhen’s unstoppable race from the suburbs to first place in A

The difficult life in Nigeria, then the explosion in Lille. Napoli paid 70 million for him. The city loves him, he goes out a little and gets advice from his friend Koulibaly

Unmarkable, Victor Osimhen presents himself like this and the label wraps him, sticks to every piece of his life because there does not seem to be a way to contain him on the pitch and it is rather difficult to follow him outside, in Naples where he has found a dimension but still does not leave traces.

The real nine is the way to the goal of this start of the championship and on Sunday Toro finds himself in front of the man of the moment. And something more. Osimhen is the signature on the first place of Napoli, he is the pure attacker, the one who occupies the space, who is strong with his head, who pulls from all sides, which Guardiola would not like, but is adored by Spalletti. Legend has it that the new Napoli coach has fixed on him since the first training session in retirement and it is almost banal because Osimhen cost 70 million in full pandemic and spent the last season giving a vague idea of ​​what he could have Do. Without Covid and injuries. Gattuso saw little of him, Spalletti never lost sight of him and also adjusted the percentage of support distributed at random. The only defect of the toe coming out of a landfill with the ball at the foot.

Not quite so, but it took a dose of breakthrough to emerge as a water bearer, in the literal sense. Born north of Lagos, 300 meters from one of the largest open-air dumps and raised in the middle, where every child learns to blend in so as not to have trouble and to find a way not to feel like a waste. Osimhen plays football.

From there starts the story of a past of which he only gives glimpses. The idea that he found the first shoes among the garbage is not so probable, in Oregun there is piles of electrical material, the one that arrives from all over the world and that Nigeria cannot dispose of. For those wishing to deepen there is the investigation of the Lifebuoy, which has become a book, “Let’s pollute them in their home”, for those who want to understand how a boy with six brothers, no more mother and a father thrown out by the police managed to get out of there need to follow the ball. Only that.

We know how Osimhen contributed to his precarious home income, he made it clear when, now a Serie A footballer, he looked for a legless girl who wandered the streets of Lagos to sell bags of water. He asked for help to track her down via Instagram, found her and helped “because I was like her.” He lived the same way, in the same streets. There, as a teenager, he discovered he was a real nine: one who stands out even where no one is looking. Obvious one. Recruited by the Ultimate Strikers Academy, he only goes up, even if jerking. Nigeria Under 17 makes him a market deal and attracts Wolfsburg, where he is not at all well and then moves to Belgium and then to Lille, where he grows up. Up to Napoli that overpays him and overwhelms him. He is only 22 years old, he has some life on his shoulders and he is unstoppable so the Taurus will have to invent a way to identify him, before being able to stop him.

Osimhen in Naples dresses up as a rapper, one of those “bling bling”, as they say in France that made him famous: designer chains and garments, all to attract attention and then the opposite so as not to be noticed. Street food in the alleys of a city that now adores it and little frequentation, on the recommendation of his friend Koulibaly. The fish at the Cocoloco that pampers him, frequent deliveries and abundant tips to all the boys who bring food like his brothers did. More and more rare releases because since it was said that he caught Covid at a party in Nigeria he has been far from chatter. He knows how to blend in even in the alleys of Naples covered with his name and he knows how to reappear in the center of the field. Like the striker that no one has been able to stop yet. Certainly the obscene racist buu of Florence did not succeed. They targeted him but didn’t find him. –