Victor Osimhen has become Nigeria’s top scorer in a single Italian Serie A season after scoring a brace in Napoli’s 4-0 thrashing of Torino on Sunday at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino di Torino to take his tally of the season to 21 goals in 23 league games.
After going two Serie A games without a goal, it took the Nigeria international just nine minutes to open the scoring, jumping highest to head home the opener from a Piotr Zielinski corner kick. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia made it 2-0 in the 35th minute while Osimhen in the 51th minute extended the lead for the visitors. Substitute Tanguy Ndombele put the game beyond their hosts, scoring Napoli’s fourth in the 68th minute.
The brace takes Osimhen’s tally of the season to 21 goals in 23 Serie A appearances breaking the previous best scoring performance by a Nigerian in the league. The previous record was held by lanky striker Simy Nwankwo who had scored 20 league goals in 38 appearances for Crotone in the 2020/21 league season.
Osimhen’s performance for the Partenopei has been instrumental in pushing the Naples side towards winning their first domestic league title in over 30 years. Aside from his league performance, he’s also found the back of the net four times in five appearances in the UEFA Champions League helping them reach the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time in their history.
Today’s win for Napoli takes them 21 points clear of second-placed Inter Milan who face Juventus later in the day. A win for the Milan side will see them reduce the deficit to 10 points with 11 games till the end of the season.
The 24-year-old has scored 25 goals while providing five assists for Napoli in 29 games across all competitions. His brace also takes his goals tally in 2023 to 15 goals, same as Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and one goal behind Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford.
Osimhen has become the fourth Napoli player in the De Laurentiis era to have scored 20+ goals in a single Serie A campaign, after Edison Cavani, Gonzalo Higuaín and Dries Mertens.
