Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has admitted the club are powerless to prevent Victor Osimhen from leaving this summer.
Osimhen is a transfer target for Europe’s elite this summer with Arsenal, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain heavily linked with the forward, who has scored 72 goals in 122 games since joining the Italian side from Lille.
The Nigeria international was the league’s leading scorer as Napoli won a first Scudetto in 33 years last season and was named African Footballer of the Year in 2023 for his performances in Serie A.
A release clause in the region of €130m (£111m) has been reported in the media and De Laurentiis has confirmed a clause exits in Osimhen’s deal. The club president said he hopes Osimhen remains in Naples but conceded some players are ‘attracted’ by a move to European football’s wealthiest clubs.
“Victor is another good player that Napoli have. We had (Edinson) Cavani, (Gonzalo) Higuain, (Ezequiel) Lavezzi and we had (Dries) Mertens, we had a lot of people who were fantastic,” De Laurentiis told Sky Sports News.
“Osimhen is a very great player – but you know: Napoli is a fantastic place. There are certain players who fell in love with Napoli and stayed, like (Marek) Hamsik for 11 years. Or like others for eight years.
“And there are others who are attracted by Real Madrid, by PSG, by Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea. So you cannot stop them, especially when they have a fixed amount of money where they can be bought.
“He has a release clause. It’s a very big amount of money.”
Asked if Osimhen could stay at Napoli for next season, he added: “Who knows who will leave? We will see.
“The money is the last problem for Napoli. We always made very good acquisitions as we did in the past. We will do [so] in the future.
“The problem is just sentimental problems. When you see a player leave, it’s like a son. You are also happy if this son has a fantastic success everywhere else.”
