I never wanted to sign for Napoli, Osimhen reveals contract ordeal

By our reporter 9.10.2025
Top striker Victor Osimhen has told investigators of his questionable transfer to Napoli that it was not by his own free will he signed for Italian side in 2020.
Osimhen who was testifying to Italy’s Guardia di Finanza of his transfer deal to Napoli, said he was pressured to sign for Napoli from Lile, while his late father was battling to stay alive. He revealed that he was not involved in the contract talks, stressing that it was football agents, Napoli and Lile officials that drafted the contract without his consent.
“My previous agent, Jean Gerard, had expressed serious interest from Napoli, but he was only interested in my transfer and not in my father’s health,” Osimhen said in his testimony to the Guardia di Finanza, and was leaked by La Repubblica.
“At that time, I didn’t have the head to think about football; I just wanted to know how he was doing.
“Gerard called me to meet him in Nice. Luis Campos and Lille president Gerard Lopez were also there. They told me I should move to Napoli, that there was already an agreement in principle and that, due to the pandemic, it was a good opportunity for Lille. But I knew nothing about it.”
Osimhen stated that while this was going on, his father passed on.
“I was extremely angry with Lille and my agent because I hadn’t been able to see him before he died. They even told me I would have to leave for Naples the next day, without even realising my father’s death,”
“I went to Naples anyway, but I wouldn’t have signed anything. I met with the coach, who explained the project to me, and the next day with De Laurentiis in Capri. He told me about the city and the club, but I didn’t understand what he was saying to Giuntoli because they were speaking in Italian. He asked me if I had seen the contract, but I hadn’t received anything.”
Osimhen revealed that he almost returned to France when he realised that his contract was not worth a dime and he sacked his agent Jean Gerard and asked William D’Avila to renegotiate a proper contract, which he did.
“Towards the end of July, I signed the contract in Lille, in the presence of Maurizio Micheli for Napoli and, among others, D’Avila, Lopez, Ingla, Roberto Calenda, and Cros.”