Victor Osimhen has scored 17 goals in 25 appearances at Galatasaray this season, including seven in the Champions League. Bayern Munich is watching. Harry Kane turns 33 in July. The most intriguing potential transfer story of the summer is gathering pace.
Former Nigeria international Ernest Ekpo believes Victor Osimhen is the natural replacement for Harry Kane at Bayern Munich. It is an opinion shared, it now emerges, by Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany, who has been tracking the Nigerian striker since their overlapping time in Belgium. Kompany managed Anderlecht and coached Burnley when Osimhen was at Charleroi, and later rose through the Belgian and French football systems. He knows the player. He admires what he sees. And Bayern, according to multiple European sources, including Foot Mercato, is now actively examining a move.
Why the Conversation Has Started Now
Kane is 32. His current Bayern contract runs until 2027. Nobody at the Allianz Arena is suggesting he goes anywhere soon. With a record of 130 goals from 133 competitive matches since joining from Spurs in 2023, his consistency is remarkable. But Bayern plan ahead and always have. The question of what comes after Kane is one the club’s leadership cannot afford to ignore for much longer.Osimhen’s current form makes the comparison easy. He sits fourth in the Champions League top scorers chart this season with seven goals. His UCL tally includes a decisive strike in Galatasaray’s shock knockout of Juventus in the Round of 16 play-offs, a result that announced that the Turkish side was a genuine European force and that Osimhen, on the continental stage, remains elite. His 10 Süper Lig goals in 17 matches continue a prolific run that stretches back through his loan year, when he scored 37 goals in 41 appearances and won the Turkish top scorer award.
Ekpo’s Case: Why Osimhen Fits Bayern
Ekpo’s argument centres on what Osimhen would bring to Bayern Munich. The side plays with width and pace, relying on full-backs for crosses and using relentless high pressing to regain the ball quickly. Kane’s game relies on his ability to drop into midfield and act as a facilitating No.10 at times. He uses vision and passing to create for others, and also scores constantly and efficiently. However, his physical profile is not the explosive, channel-running type that Bayern’s system sometimes needs. Osimhen offers the other end of that spectrum. As Bavarian Football Works noted in their analysis this week, he is “more of a pure spearhead.” He attacks channels, pressures centre-backs relentlessly, and lives off crosses and through balls. He applies the kind of vertical explosiveness that would be devastating in the Bundesliga, where teams push high lines. Kompany’s pressing-based system was refined at Anderlecht and further developed at Bayern. It is built for a striker who runs behind defences, which is Osimhen’s exact skill set.The Obstacles Are Real
Valuation: Galatasaray value Osimhen at approximately €150 million. Bayern historically resists nine-figure fees for a successor while the current striker is still producing.
Wages: Osimhen earns an estimated €20 million net per year at Galatasaray. That is at the very top end of what any European club will pay a single player.
Timing: Kane’s contract runs to 2027. Signing Osimhen before Kane leaves creates a striking problem, not a solution.
PSG, who might otherwise have been a natural destination, have reportedly withdrawn due to those same financial concerns. Luis Enrique is not believed to be a strong advocate of Osimhen’s tactical profile, and Luis Campos, despite knowing the player well from their time at Lille, views the wage demands as prohibitive. Manchester United, Juventus, and Atletico Madrid are not currently active in pursuing a deal.
Osimhen to Bayern makes compelling football sense. Kompany knows the player. The profile fits the system. The Super Eagles talisman is 27, at the peak of his powers, and producing his best Champions League football since his Napoli days. If Bayern signed him tomorrow and built around him, they would be getting one of the three best strikers in world football.
But football logic and financial logic are different things. €150m plus €20m annual wages for a player who would initially sit behind Harry Kane is not a calculation that even Bayern’s resources make easily. The summer of 2027, when Kane’s contract expires, and the forward line needs a genuine successor, is the moment this deal makes full sense. Getting there requires patience from Munich and continued excellence from Osimhen. Both seem plausible right now.
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- Victor Osimhen scored 37 goals in 41 appearances during his first season at Galatasaray on loan in 2024/25, winning the Turkish Super Lig top scorer award and breaking several club records in the process, before Galatasaray made his transfer permanent for €75 million.
- Vincent Kompany managed Anderlecht in Belgium between 2019 and 2022 before moving to Burnley, meaning he was coaching in the Belgian Pro League during the period when Osimhen was beginning his professional career at Charleroi and first attracting serious European attention.
- Harry Kane has scored 130 goals in 133 competitive appearances for Bayern Munich since joining from Tottenham Hotspur in August 2023, a return that makes him statistically one of the most efficient strikers in the club’s modern history, even by Bayern’s famously high standards.
- Osimhen’s Champions League goal against Juventus in the 2025/26 Round of 16 play-offs helped Galatasaray become the first Turkish club to eliminate an Italian giant at that stage of the competition, a result that generated significant coverage across European football media.
- Bayern Munich rejected an approach to sign Osimhen in January 2026, with sporting director Max Eberl reportedly declining at that point. The club is now reported to be reconsidering for the summer, suggesting its position has shifted in just two months.
- Osimhen’s estimated €150 million release clause valuation at Galatasaray would make him one of the most expensive transfers in football history if a club met it in full, placing him alongside Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, and a handful of others in the highest transfer fee bracket ever recorded.
- Ernest Ekpo, whose view triggered this particular conversation, is a respected former Nigerian international and pundit whose opinions on Super Eagles player development and international transfers are regularly sought by Nigerian football media, particularly on matters involving the Super Eagles’ top European-based players.
