After scoring his 20th goal of the season, Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen activated his contract’s goals bonus, obliging Napoli to pay him a bonus of €130,130. (N64m).
The Nigeria international scored in Napoli’s 2-0 Champions League round of 16 win against Eintracht Frankfurt, bringing his tally for the 2022/23 season to 20 and unlocking the €130,130 bonus (N63.6m).
The Nigerian international is in the third and unquestionably best year of his five-year deal with the Neapolitans.
Osimhen became the most expensive African footballer in history when Napoli paid LOSC Lille €75 million and included a number of players in the deal, which saw the total sum exceed €80 million in 2021.
Also contained in his five-year deal were milestones that would see Osimhen earn more than his base wage of €4.8m (N2.3bn), with one of those predetermined benchmarks requiring Napoli to pay Osimhen €130,130 if he scored 20 goals in a season.
Osimhen scored 10 league goals in his first season at Naples, then 14 in Serie A and four in the Europa League in his second.
Nevertheless, in the 2022/23 season, an amazing Osimhen has been tearing defenses apart and scoring fantastic goals with incredible regularity.
After missing a month due to injury, Osimhen leads Serie A in goals with 18 in 19 appearances. He also has two goals in the Champions League, bringing his tally to 20.
The 24-year-old forward has scored in his past seven Serie A outings, the most recent being a sensational strike in Napoli’s 2-0 win against Sassuolo.
When asked earlier in the season if the contract bonus would drive him to score more goals, the U-17 World Cup winner and record-leading scorer said his first priority was to help his team.
“I’m delighted; it was important to get off to a good start. We need to feel the same way we did last year and get off to a great start. I’m not the sort of player who sets goals; instead, I want to score in order to help the team. “I put the collective first,” he explained.
Osimhen will receive a similar bonus if he can boost his total to 25, and with his present form, scoring five more goals is simply a matter of when not if.
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