Gift Orban spent last season at Hellas Verona on loan, scored seven goals, watched his club get relegated, and left without a permanent deal. Now a Serie A newcomer wants to bring him back to the Italian top flight through a different front door.
Italian transfer expert Gianluca Di Marzio has reported that Venezia are monitoring Gift Orban as they plan their squad for a return to Serie A. The Winged Lions, who won the Serie B title in 2025-26 and secured their place back in the Italian top flight after just one season in the second tier, are looking to add attacking quality to a group that will need significant reinforcement if they are to survive where they failed in 2024-25. Orban, 23, fits the profile of a physical, direct striker who has demonstrated at Hellas Verona that he can contribute meaningfully at Serie A level.
Hoffenheim, who hold Orban’s permanent contract, are expected to demand approximately €9m for the Nigerian’s services this summer. The Bundesliga club signed him from Olympique Lyon in January 2025 and he spent much of his time in Germany on loan rather than becoming a central figure in their first-team planning. With the transfer window open and multiple clubs expected to register interest, Hoffenheim’s preference is believed to be a permanent sale rather than another loan arrangement. Nigerian football fans following Orban’s club future can track the latest transfer news and find the best pre-match Bet9ja offers through FootballInNigeria.com.ng’s Bet9ja promotion code page as the summer window develops.
What Orban Produced at Verona
Orban’s 2025-26 season at Hellas Verona was a story in two parts. The first was a striker gradually finding his rhythm in a new system, contributing without dominating. The second was a player who had settled and was delivering consistent output in a side that was fighting a losing battle against relegation. Across 28 Serie A appearances he scored seven goals and added three assists, numbers that represent a genuinely useful contribution from a forward who was expected to provide energy and directness from a club that lacked the technical depth of mid table opponents.
Verona finished 19th and went down. The option to make Orban’s loan permanent, which existed in the agreement between Verona and Hoffenheim, was not activated. From a purely football perspective, that decision is straightforward a relegated club does not spend money on a player’s permanent acquisition immediately after dropping to Serie B. But for Orban, it means he re-enters the summer market available for a fresh start. Venezia’s interest suggests there is appetite for exactly what he offers at the promoted club level of Italian football, where a striker who knows the division, has already proved he can score in it, and carries the physical profile to handle the intensity of a relegation battle represents a logical acquisition.
The Career Path That Brought Him Here
Orban’s journey to this point has followed the kind of trajectory that several Nigerian strikers have taken through Belgian and French football before arriving in Italy. He first attracted significant attention at KAA Gent in the Belgian Pro League, where a remarkable debut season produced 20 goals in 30 league appearances, a return that made him one of the most talked-about young African strikers in European football at the time. Olympique Lyon paid for that promise in 2023, bringing him to Ligue 1 where the step up in quality and the demands of a club going through a period of financial and sporting instability complicated his development. He scored four goals in 13 league appearances at Hoffenheim after his January 2025 move before heading to Verona for the season just completed.
At 23 with Serie A experience and a Belgian league scoring record that still stands as evidence of his natural finishing ability, Orban is at the point in his career where a well-chosen next move can either accelerate his trajectory significantly or stall it. Venezia are not the most glamorous destination in Italian football, but they represent guaranteed Serie A football and the kind of central role a striker needs to develop confidence and momentum at the top level. Whether Hoffenheim and a potential buying club can agree terms around the €9m valuation will determine how quickly this story reaches its conclusion. Fans wanting to follow Orban’s Super Eagles career and club transfer news can stay updated through Bet9ja’s Lucky G feature and all the latest Nigerian football content this summer.
The Super Eagles Picture
Orban has been part of the Super Eagles setup under Eric Chelle and was included in the squad for the June 2026 window, though his appearances have been limited as the coaching staff balance the contributions of Osimhen, Victor Boniface, and Terem Moffi in the forward positions. A settled club situation heading into the AFCON qualification campaign that begins later in 2026 would serve Orban’s international prospects considerably. Strikers who are playing regularly and scoring consistently at club level are far more difficult to leave out of national team squads than those rotating through loan arrangements and uncertain situations. The Serie A market that is circling him this summer, with Venezia at the front of the queue and more clubs expected to follow, may be the moment that provides the stability his career has been building toward. For the full picture of Nigerian transfers this summer and all the latest NPFL and Super Eagles news, the current Bet9ja promotion code is available before the window closes.
📌 Did You Know?
- Gift Orban scored 20 goals in 30 Belgian Pro League appearances for KAA Gent in his breakthrough 2022-23 season, a return that made him one of the most coveted young African strikers in European football and triggered the bidding that led to his Olympique Lyon move in 2023.
- Venezia FC, known as the Winged Lions, play their home matches at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo on the island of Sant’Elena in Venice, making it one of the most unique stadium settings in European professional football and the only top flight ground in the world accessible primarily by water.
- Venezia were relegated from Serie A at the end of the 2024-25 season after finishing in the bottom three, then won the Serie B title in 2025-26 to return immediately to the top flight, making them one of the few Italian clubs to achieve back-to-back promotion in recent seasons.
- Gianluca Di Marzio, the Italian transfer journalist who broke the Venezia-Orban link, is the son of former Italy and Napoli manager Gianni Di Marzio. He is widely considered the most reliable source for Italian domestic transfer news, with a track record of accuracy that makes his reports a significant market signal.
- Gift Orban joined Hoffenheim from Olympique Lyon in January 2025 for a fee believed to be in the region of €12-15m, meaning Hoffenheim’s €9m asking price for a summer 2026 sale would represent a loss on their original outlay, reflecting the stop-start nature of his time in Germany and France.
- Hellas Verona, where Orban spent the 2025-26 season on loan, were founded in 1903 and are one of Serie A’s most historically significant yo-yo clubs. They are best known internationally for their surprise 1985 Serie A title under Osvaldo Bagnoli, the only time a club from Verona has won Italian football’s top division.
- Nigerian strikers have a long and distinguished history in Italian football, with Obafemi Martins, Nwankwo Kanu, Victor Moses, and Victor Osimhen all having made significant impacts in Serie A. Orban’s potential Serie A career represents a continuation of that tradition in Italian football from the Nigerian pipeline.
