Victor Osimhen becomes highest ranked Nigerian footballer in Ballon d'OR History

Victor Osimhen becomes highest ranked Nigerian footballer in Ballon d’OR History

Victor James Osimhen has just made history as the highest ranked Nigerian footballer in Ballon D’or history.

The Ballon D’or awards ceremony was held on the 30th of October at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. The event was hosted by french journalist Sandy Heribert and Chelsea and Côte d’Ivoire legend, Didier Drogba.

Football stars, personalities and celebrities graced the event clad in suits and dresses to celebrate the very best in the world of football.

Lionel Messi ended up winning the most coveted award but for Nigerians, it was Victor Osimhen who took all the shine.

Osimhen was nominated in the original 30 man shortlist for his exploits last season;

Winning the Serie A for Napoli for the first time in 33 years
Scoring 26 league goals to win the golden boot (Capocannoniere) and being the first African to do so
Breaking the goal scoring records of African legends like Samuel Eto and George Weah

How Victor Osimhen became the Highest Ranking Nigerian Player in Ballon d’or history

Victor Osimhen made history by finishing 8th position in the 2023 Ballon D’or. This has made Victor Osimhen become the highest ranking Nigerian player in Ballon D’or history. He has also become the only Nigerian player to make it into the top 10. With Kanu Nwankwo missing out by just a spot as he finished 11th in 1996

Osimhen is now a top ten best player in the world and the best player in Africa.

Related

Rema becomes First African Artist to perform at Ballon d’OR

List of accurate and best Football prediction sites 2022

Go to Home| Read the latest

About Victor Osinhem

Victor James Osimhen MFR was born 29th December, 1998 in Lagos, Nigeria. He is a professional footballer who plays for Napoli and The Nigerian national team.

He is the last of six children. He lost his mother when he was young. Osimhen and his siblings hawked sachet water, oranges and other commodities on the streets of Lagos to support their parents.

GOLDEN EAGLET

Osimhen travelled to Abuja to tryout for the U17 national team where he impressed Emmanuel Amunike, the then coach of the team.

He was picked to represent Nigeria in 2015 at the U17 World Cup in Chile. He ended up playing a pivotal role in Nigeria’s Cup triumph, scoring 10 goals to emerge the highest goal scorer of the competition.

He also won the second best player of the tournament. After the competition, so many big clubs jostled for his signature, some of which included Arsenal, Tottenham, Wolfsburg and Chelsea. He ended up signing for Wolfsburg on a three and a half year deal.

WOLFSBURG

Unfortunately, his time with the bundesliga outfit didn’t pan out as planned as he was hampered by injuries. He made only 12 bundesliga appearances without scoring a single goal.

Even when he was fit, he found playing time hard to come by as the then Wolfsburg Manager couldn’t trust such a young player to lead the line. He was eighteen at the time.

Osimhen had to look for playing time elsewhere. He went for trials in Belgium for Zulte Waregem and Club Brugge but he failed to get signed due to a bout of malaria. But then Sporting Chaleroi came knocking.

SPORTING CHALEROI

Sporting Chaleroi would be the team that would take a chance on Osimhen and mark a turning point in his career. 20 goals in 36 games in all competitions and Osimhen was back on track.

LILLE

The following season, the Nigerian joined Ligue 1 club, Lille. He hit the ground running immediately, scoring a brace on his debut. He also scored against Chelsea and Valencia in his debut Champions League season. A beautiful season ended with 24 goals/assists in 38 games in all competitions. Osimhen also won the Marc-Vivien Foe prize awarded to the best African player in Ligue 1.

This incredible season prompted Napoli, a club from the South of Italy to make him the most expensive African signing of all time, coughing out 70 million euros for his signature.

NAPOLI

He had a slower start to life in Naples, scoring only ten goals in his first season due to various injuries and COVID-19 related issues.

The following season was slightly better, improving his goal tally to 18 in all competitions and qualifying for the champions league.

He also missed a number of matches due to injury, the most notable being the one he suffered against Inter Milan. It was reported the injury almost made him blind and resulted in him wearing what is now his trademark mask.

But the 2022/23 season would turn out to be a record breaking one for Victor

Osimhen and the city of Naples. The start of the season looked bleak for Napoli after losing key players like Kalidou Koulibaly and Lorenzo Insigne. But with the signings of Kim Min-Jae, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Frank Anguissa, there could be a hope after all.

Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia stroke a remarkable attacking partnership as they blazed past their opponents to win the Scudetto for Napoli for the first time in thirty-three years.

He also scored 26 goals to win the golden boot award, becoming the first African to ever do so. He also scored 5 in the champions league as Napoli reached the quarter finals of the Uefa Champions league for the first time in their history.

Victor Osimhen broke the goal scoring records of two African greats; Samuel Eto and George Weah (a former Ballon D’or winner)

– Most goals scored by an African in a single Serie A season

Previous Record

Samuel Eto’o – 21 goals

New Record

Victor Osimhen – 26 goals

-Total number of goals scored by an African in serie A

Previous Record

George Weah – 47 goals

New Record

Victor Osimhen – 56 goals and counting

Due to his exploits in the 2022/2023 season, he was nominated for the 2023 Ballon D’or.

On October 30th, Victor Osimhen became the highest ranked Nigerian footballer in Ballon D’or history as he finished 8th on the rankings.

NIGERIA

He made his debut against Tunisia at the Afcon 2019 tournament. He scored his first goal against Ukraine in a friendly match that ended in a draw. Victor Osimhen has amassed 20 goals for the Super Eagles and his touted to surpass legendary Rashidi Yekini’s tally of 37 goals to become the highest goal scorer for Nigeria.

PERSONAL LIFE

His daughter, Hailey Osimhen was born in October 2022.

Apart from football, Osimhen is a business man and he reportedly has two estates.

AWARDS