Thomas Tuchel remains tight-lipped about interest in bringing SSC Napoli’s Victor Osimhen to Bayern Munich

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6 March 2024, 06:16 yayınlandı

Bayern Munich needs a striker, right? Let’s discuss:

Victor Osimhen is having the season of his life at SSC Napoli right now. So far, the Nigerian has bagged a total of 25 goals and five assists across all competitions, as Napoli are not too far off clinching their first Scudetto since the 1989/90 season, when the club was spearheaded by the legendary Diego Maradona. They’re also still well within their reach to overcome the 1-0 deficit over AC Milan in the Champions League quarter-finals, with their home leg still to come.

It’s essentially an open secret that a bevy of top clubs in Europe want to sign Osimhen. The striker has taken himself to new heights at Napoli after joining from Lille in the fall of 2020 for roughly €40m. Per Transfermarkt, his current market value is estimated around €100m, and his current contract with Napoli runs through June 2025. Case in point, it will cost any club an arm and a leg to acquire Osimhen’s signature, but Sky Germany had recently reported that he’s expressed interest in joining Bayern Munich, in what’s a mutual understanding, though Bayern rarely spend that much for any one player.

Ahead of Bayern’s Bundesliga match against TSG Hoffenheim, Thomas Tuchel was asked about the interest in Osimhen, who’s a player that Tuchel himself has lauded before. Bayern’s new manager refused to go into any detail, and rather dodged the brunt of the question by saying he doesn’t want to say anything he feels he shouldn’t. “I have an opinion on that – but I know how things work. If I say something about it and it spills over to Italy, then my colleague there will say: ‘Why doesn’t Thomas keep his mouth shut?’ – I’m not going to talk about players of other clubs,” he explained (via @iMiaSanMia).

For what it’s worth, Tuchel’s response is par for the course given his position at the club. He’s only just replaced Julian Nagelsmann and has already overseen the club getting knocked out of the DFB-Pokal and lose their first Champions League quarter finals leg against Manchester City 3-0. Now isn’t exactly the appropriate time for Tuchel to be either directly, on indirectly, complaining too much, especially about personnel.

Per football transfer expert Fabrizio Romano (via @iMiaSanMia), Napoli have not yet put an official price tag on Osimhen, despite knowing clubs will be ready to splash the cash for him this summer. Chelsea, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain are three other clubs said to be tracking the striker’s progress and monitoring his situation. If and when Napoli does put up an official price, it will be what was referred to as a “crazy fight” for anyone to try to sign him during the summer transfer window.