Victor Osimhen Bags Italian FA Footballer Of The Year Gong

Super Eagles forward Victor Osimhen has added yet another gong to his growing list of accolades after scooping the Footballer of the Year prize for 2023 at the AIC Oscar del Calcio Awards. 

Osimhen was instrumental for Napoli as they raced to their first Serie A title in 33 years earlier in the year.

The Nigerian scored 26 league goals to land the gong at the Italian Footballers’ Association Footballer of the Year award ceremony on Monday night.

“Victor Osimhen is the 2022/23 Footballer of the Year,” the awardees tweeted while announcing the 24-year-old as the winner.

Apart from winning the individual prize, Osimhen also earned a spot in the Serie A Team of the Year alongside teammates Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Kim Min-jae.

Others included in the list are Andrea Bastoni, Theo Hernández, Rafael Leão, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Mike Maignan, Stanislav Lobotka, and Nicolo Barella.

Monday’s event is coming one week before the CAF awards where the striker is in pole position to become the first Nigerian to win Africa’s top player prize since legendary Kanu Nwankwo in 1999. The event is billed for the Moroccan city of Marrakesh. Former Nigerian captains Mikel Obi and Vincent Enyeama were the closest to winning the award since Kanu but they ended second and third respectively in 2013 and 2014.

In October, Osimhen was ranked eighth in the 2023 Ballon d’Or, becoming the highest-rated Nigerian since the inception of the award. Kanu had finished 11th in 1996.