Victor Osimhen to Chelsea transfer latest - sporting director talks as hijack fears grow

Intrigue over which club Chelsea transfer target Victor Osimhen will be playing for at the end of the start of the season has been high all summer.

The Nigerian international, 26, ran out of time last summer to seal a switch from Napoli to Stamford Bridge in the final hours of the transfer window. Out of favour at the Italian club, his last resort was to make use of Turkey's extended summer window and seal a season-long loan to Galatasaray.

There, Osimhen was able to showcase his best form with 37 goals in 41 appearances but he has now officially returned to Naples after his loan agreement ended.

Chelsea, comfortable to splash the cash again between seasons, have invested heavily in their forward line and with the likes of Nicolas Jackson, Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku all presenting doubts over if they will stay in SW6, the idea of Osimhen joining the FIFA Club World Cup champions has not totally gone away just yet.

For all intents and purposes, however, any chance the Blues may have shortens as the days go by. The striker has plenty of interested parties elsewhere active in their attempts to agree a deal.

Front of the queue appears to be Galatasaray, who are reportedly hashing out the structure of a €75m (£67m) deal with Napoli so that the striker can return. Osimhen has been described as being 'open' to this despite a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia.

But according to L'Equipe they are not the only club with representatives in contact with Osimhen.

Paris Saint Germain, freshly denied from a 2024/25 quadruple by the Blues, have allegedly had sporting director Luis Campos in direct conversation with the Nigerian.

The Ligue 1 club, like Chelsea, have previous with the player as a transfer target that evaded their grasp one year ago.

And Campos could spring a hijack if Galatasaray are not careful. The Portuguese has a relationship already built with the forward after signing him for LOSC Lille in 2019.

But such a notion is not universally popular. Bruno Satin, the former agent of Osimhen's old teammate at Napoli and ex-Chelsea centre back Kalidou Koulibaly, is now a pundit and voiced his disagreement with a move to PSG.

"Osimhen? I don’t know if PSG can count on him," he told radio channel Kiss Kiss Napoli, as quoted by Le10Sport.

"Luis Enrique's first choice isn’t to have a traditional striker; he always prefers to use [Ousmane] Dembele as a ‘false nine.’ Signing Victor would make him a starter, which could complicate the mechanisms already in place with the Frenchman."

Story Saved

You can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.