Nigerian footballer, Victor Osimhen, has won the Italian Footballers’ Association (IFA) Footballer of the Year, following a victorious season in Napoli.
This was announced by IFA via its verified page on X with the video of the presentation of the award.
The award followed Osimhen’s contributions to Napoli’s first title-winning season in 33 years, and for winning the highest top scorer in Serie A last season.
Osimhen scored 26 times during 32 Serie A appearances.
The ‘Footballer of the Year’ award is considered the most prestigious award of the night and had previously been awarded to the likes of Rafael Leao, Gianluigi Buffon, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Football Italia reports.
This award comes amid speculation of his intention to leave Italy next summer.
There has been rumour that the Nigerian player is now going increasingly distant from signing a new Napoli contract after the club trolled him in a video released in September on Tiktok.
This came after the striker missed a late penalty in a league game against Bologna. The action of the club generated a lot of negative reactions from Nigerians on social media, specifically X, formerly known as Twitter.
At the time, the 24-year-old’s agent also revealed that they could take legal action against Napoli for posting an objectionable video about the striker.
The controversy came after Osimhen had a verbal confrontation with the club’s then-manager Rudi Garcia when he was substituted in the game against Bologna.
