Transfer: Victor Boniface top of Napoli’s list of strikers to replace Osimhen

Super Eagles and Bayer 04 Leverkusen striker, Victor Okoh Boniface is on Napoli’s radar of potential replacements for Victor Osimhen.

The 23-year-old was unstoppable in the Hinründe for Xabi Alonso’s men, scoring ten goals, assisting eight in fifteen starts for Die Werkself, and carting away the Rookie of the Month award four consecutive times.

An adductor injury has seen him miss most of the Rückrunde as Leverkusen presses on on all three fronts for trophies this term. They’re still unbeaten after 39 games.

His exploits in the first half of the season have seen him linked with Arsenal. Soccernet.ng earlier reported that the one-time DFB-Pokal winners are unwilling to sell the striker who is only in his first season with the club but are open to discussions if a bid of around €55m comes in for the former Union Saint-Gilloise striker.

Victor Osimhen has been linked with a move away from Napoli, with Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain as the likely destinations, as long as they can pay off his €120m release clause.

In a report published by Calcio Mercato, Italian transfer expert, Niccolò Ceccarini, revealed a list of strikers on Napoli’s radar to replace Osimhen, should his release clause get triggered in the summer.

“David of Lille is one of them, but there are also high options on the list. There’s Santiago Gimenez of Feyenoord, who’s having an extraordinary season in Holland. He has scored 21 goals in Eredivisie and 4 assists, adding 2 goals in the Champions League and 1 in the Europa League. In addition to him, there is also Benjamin Sesko. Also in this case the evaluation is the same as Gimenez, Leverkusen’s Boniface. In the list, there is of course Zirkzee of Bologna but here the Italian competition is very strong”, Ceccarini told Tuttomercatoweb in quotes revealed by Calcio Mercato.

However, the chances of Boniface leaving the Bay Arena for Napoli are very slim. With Xabi Alonso announcing that he’ll be staying with the German club for another season, it would make perfect sense for the Nigerian striker to stay at the club to build on his first season.

In addition to that, Leverkusen have a 2024/2025 UEFA Champions League spot sealed, and for Napoli, that is almost out of reach. With eight league games left to play, the defending Serie A Champions are nine points off the Champions League qualification places.

Boniface’s Leverkusen are just three wins away from winning their first-ever Bundesliga title as Bayer Munich are 13 points below them, following their 2-0 loss to Karim Adeyemi’s Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker.