Victor Osimhen is said to have turned down a move to Manchester United because he did not want to disrespect Odion Ighalo, according to the Napoli striker’s brother.
The 21-year-old was linked with several Premier League clubs this summer before he joined Napoli in a £45 million deal from Lille. Earlier this year, Ighalo praised Osimhen’s rise at Lille and hailed the striker as the future of Nigerian football. But Osimhen’s brother, Andrew, claims the Napoli forward was reluctant to join up with Ighalo at Old Trafford.
It is very true that Manchester United wanted Victor but he told me something like he had too much respect for Odion Ighalo to be competing for shirts with his senior colleague,’ Andrew Osimhen told Complete Sports.
My brother holds Ighalo in high esteem and he just didn’t see himself going to Old Trafford to battle for a striking role with the highest goalscorer at the 2019 AFCON in Egypt.’
In an earlier interview with Complete Sports, Andrew Osimhen also revealed that Tottenham and Jose Mourinho were also interested in signing the striker. ‘The economic meltdown started affecting those clubs and they did not want to spend huge money on signing players but truly, Victor told me that Tottenham came but his representatives gave Jose Mourinho a tough option,’ he said. ‘He said they told Mourinho that he might need to sell Harry Kane before Spurs can buy him, but I laughed that away as I felt it was never going to happen.
‘Kane is Tottenham’s image and they can’t sell him. ‘I concluded that Tottenham would never agree to sell Kane because of a player who is not even a citizen of England. ‘Mourinho also replied by saying that he really wanted Victor Osimhen but he couldn’t sell Kane.’