Chelsea miss out on Osimhen as he signs mouth-watering deal with Saudi club Al Ahli

ENGLISH Premier League giants Chelsea have lost out on the opportunity to sign Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen after Saudi Arabian side Al Ahli have agreed a four year deal with the player and his club Napoli.

Over recent weeks, the battle to sign Osimhen has been raging incessantly, with Chelsea, Arsenal and PSG all involved in the race to get his signature. Over the last seven days, Chelsea have emerged as the clear favourite to sign him after reaching an agreement with Napoli but it appears that the club has been unable to agree personal terms with the player, opening the way for Al Ahli to step in.

Apparently, Osimhen was demanding £500,000 a week but Chelsea were only offering £350,000 a week, thus enabling the Saudi club to gatecrash the party with an offer of £646,154 a week. In a package said to be worth a total of £67.3m (€80m), Al Ahli have offered to pay Osimhen £33.6m (€40m) tax-free, over the duration of the four years, with Napoli being paid €80m for the transfer too.

Later today, Osimhen, 25, will undergo a medical with Al Ahli with Napoli signing Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku  as Osimhen’s replacement in a deal worth €30m.Osimhen has taken his game to another level since making the move to Napoli from Lille in the summer of 2020, playing a pivotal role in their 2022/23 Serie A campaign, contributing towards 31 goals, scoring 26 times and providing assists in 32 league outings.

While the 2023/24 season was not that memorable for him, he still finished the season with 17 goals and four assists across all competitions. Osimhen has been pushing for a move away from Napoli since the start of the summer and it appears that he will finally be leaving now for the Middle East.