In a documentary series on his career, Victor Osimhen has revealed that two Belgian clubs turned him down during a low point at Wolfsburg, one because of malaria and typhoid, and a second out of pure herd mentality.
Victor Osimhen is now one of the most sought-after strikers in world football, with a career trajectory that has taken him from Lagos to the Bundesliga, Belgium, Naples, and Istanbul. But a new documentary series, Victor Osimhen: The Untold Story, has brought into focus just how close his European career came to ending before it truly began, and the role that illness, and unexpectedly small thinking from Belgian clubs, played in that near-disaster.
Speaking in a clip from the series, Osimhen described arriving in Germany as a teenager at VfL Wolfsburg in 2017 and then attempting to find a loan club in Belgium that would give him regular playing time. The first approach ended when a club refused to sign him after his medical revealed he had suffered from malaria and typhoid. The second was even more discouraging: a different club called him in, passed the same medical, had the doctor confirm everything was fine, and then the president pulled the plug anyway because the first club had not signed him. I thanked him and left,” Osimhen said simply in the clip.
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How Charleroi Changed Everything
The breakthrough came when Royal Charleroi SC, under then-president Mehdi Bayat, offered Osimhen a lifeline just before the 2018 transfer window closed. Cautious after the back-to-back rejections, Osimhen kept the move quiet and did not announce his arrival publicly. He debuted as a substitute in a 3-1 win over Royal Excel Mouscron in September 2018, and the trajectory from that point was steep. He scored 12 league goals in his loan spell at Charleroi, form that brought him to the attention of Lille and eventually Napoli, where €80 million changed hands for his signature in 2020.
That two Belgian clubs turned away a player who would go on to be worth €80 million based on a history of tropical illness says something both about short-sightedness in European football recruitment and about the structural disadvantages that African players navigate in ways their peers from South America or Europe rarely do. Osimhen’s story is not unique; it is consistent with a pattern in which talented Nigerian footballers face additional scrutiny at the medical stage that has nothing to do with their fitness. Supporters of Nigerian talent in Europe can use the what is Bet9ja promo code page to find the latest offers before placing bets on European league matches.
The Player He Is Now
Osimhen is currently recovering from injury at Galatasaray, where his loan from Napoli has been extended. His return date has been set for around April 20, with the Turkish club anxious to have him back for their title run-in. The documentary revelations will resonate strongly with Nigerian football supporters who have watched him overcome obstacles that went beyond the usual difficulties of youth development. Mehdi Bayat of Charleroi arguably did as much for Nigerian football as anyone outside Nigeria when he made that phone call before deadline day. Fans can also access the Bet9ja’s YOHAIG welcome bonus for new user promotions as they follow Osimhen’s season finale.
📌 Did You Know?
- Osimhen became the most expensive African player in football history when Napoli paid a reported €80 million for him from Lille in 2020, a fee that has only been matched by a handful of transfers globally in that period.
- He was the top scorer at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2015, held in Chile, where Nigeria finished as runners-up to Mali, with Osimhen netting ten goals and winning the Golden Boot.
- Royal Charleroi SC president Mehdi Bayat is one of the most influential figures in Belgian football and has been involved in the development of several African players who went on to careers in Europe’s top leagues.
- VfL Wolfsburg signed Osimhen in 2017 when he was 18 years old, making him one of the youngest Nigerian players at the time to be signed directly by a Bundesliga club from Nigeria’s domestic scene.
- Malaria and typhoid are both treatable illnesses with no long-term impact on athletic performance once recovered, making the Belgian clubs’ decisions to reject Osimhen for those reasons medically questionable by the standards of sports medicine.
- Osimhen scored 31 Serie A goals in the 2022/23 season, the most by any player in a single Napoli season since the Maradona era, and a total that placed him among the top strikers in Europe that year.
- The documentary series Victor Osimhen: The Untold Story joins a growing trend of Nigerian footballers telling their personal narratives directly to fans, bypassing traditional media, following the success of similar formats by players like Sadio Mane and Didier Drogba.
