Victor Osimhen made history on Thursday night become the highest scoring African player in Italian Serie A and second Nigerian to win Italian Series A league title.
Former Super Eagles forward, Kanu Nwankwo was the first Nigerian to do when he won the Italian Series A trophy with Inter Milan in 1999.
The Super Eagles striker on Thursday broke Samuel Eto’o record for the Most Goals scored by an African in a single season with 23 goals. Eto’o had score 22 goals in a single season.
The Nigerian forward scored the decisive goal in the second half as Napoli came back from trailing to Sandi Lovric’s opener at half-time.
Osimhen’s title-deciding strike against Udinese was his 22nd goal in 28 league appearances and rightly caused bedlam among the massed ranks of away fans who took over Udine.
The Nigerian striker has had the best season of his career and been key to Napoli’s historic charge to glory, becoming, in the process, one of the most devastating centre forwards in European football, clattering in goals left and right.
Injury slowed down the 24-year-old striker’s scoring rate but between returning from a thigh injury in mid-October and the recent round of African Cup of Nations qualifiers last month, he averaged a goal a game.
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Over that period, Osimhen scored 23 times in 23 matches in all competitions, propelling Napoli to the brink of a historic Scudetto and becoming a bona fide fan idol even before he scored the goal that secured the title on Thursday.
Napoli’s Thursday win saw an end to a 33-year title drought, thanks to Osimhen’s title-winning strike which powered the team to glory, one that was last won in 1990.
Napoli are leading second-placed Lazio with 16 points, leaving them with a month-long parade between now and the end of the season which will allow their long-suffering supporters to fully unload more than a generation of frustration.
