Africa Preass-Nigeria:
It was a suffocatingly warm afternoon in Lagos and the stench of the Olusosun landfill smothered the nearby village. The largest dump in all of Africa, each day hundreds of locals sift through the skyscrapers of refuse searching for anything of value. It’s a means of livelihood in the heart of Nigeria, each resident scouring for their own individual needle in the rotting haystack. For Victor Osimhen, the prize was a football boot.
“I’d go to the dumpsite with my friend to look for them,” the Lille forward tells The Independent. “We’d see Nike left and Adidas right and try to combine everything together. I lived in a really poor neighbourhood and in our street, my family is one of the poorest. Sometimes the landlord would come to harass my dad and sisters for rent and I’d go around the corner to cry and pray to God to help me.
“If I wasn’t playing football, I’d be selling stuff to help my family. After I lost my mum [aged six], my dad lost his job and me and my siblings would sell sachets of water to those working at the dumpsite in the sun. It was really hard, but everything is in the past now. I’m happy I went through that phase of life because it helped me live up to my dreams.”
Those dreams have taken Osimhen from barely imaginable poverty to an U17 World Cup trophy, from evenings spent counting coins in a cramped kitchen with his sisters to a new life in Europe and the glittering riches of the Champions League. At 21 years old, he is one of football’s brightest talents, scoring 18 goals already this season at Lille, with a value now soaring into the tens of millions.
“My family are okay now. That’s the most important thing,” he adds. “But I still have a lot more dreams for my career.”
Victor Osimhen
Victor Osimhen is being pursued by several top European clubs
Speculation around Osimhen’s future has snowballed rapidly, with several top Premier League clubs linked with the striker on a weekly basis. “Of course, one day I’d like to play for a big club in England,” he says of the interest. “I’ve spoken to Odion [Ighalo] about it. He gave me very good advice, he’s a legend and a big brother. My goal is to play at one of the biggest clubs in the world but now I’m very happy in Lille. My priority is to play a lot of games. Signing for a big club and being on the bench is not exciting for me.”
Osimhen is also determined that whispers over the future don’t drown out his past. Nor is the interest of Europe’s biggest clubs a new phenomenon. After winning the golden boot at the U17 World Cup – owing to a prolific connection with close friend and Villarreal winger Samuel Chukwueze – Osimhen regained control of his own destiny, able to escape a life in poverty for virtually any team of his choosing.
“I spoke with Arsene Wenger after the tournament ended and he wanted me to come to Arsenal,” he says. “I had a lot of options. Barcelona; Inter Milan; Atletico Madrid; Juventus and the rest.”
Instead, Osimhen chose Germany’s distinctly less glamorous region of Lower Saxony. “Arsenal was a good option but it wasn’t the best at the time,” he continues. “I wanted to start playing as soon as I turned 18. I wanted to go to a place where I had time to invest in my game and improve physically. Wolfsburg showed me that possibility.”
The culture shock was strange and intimidating. Soon after arriving, a torn meniscus forced Osimhen to undergo three surgeries, a shoulder injury required another operation, and it wasn’t until four months later that he made his debut. “It was really tough when I first came,” he says. “After a few months, my dad and elder brother returned to Nigeria. I’d come back from training and there’d be nobody home. It was lonely. The food, the language, I had to adjust everything in my life.”
