September 29, (THEWILL) – Napoli have stopped short of apologising to striker Victor Osimhen after posting a mocked-up video of the Nigerian missing a penalty on social media platform TikTok.
The Serie A club had shared a clip of Osimhen’s penalty miss against Bologna last week, edited with a high-pitched voice, leading to a furious reaction from the 24-year-old’s agent.
In a statement, Napoli said: “It was never the club’s intent to offend Victor” but did not issue a public apology. The club pointed out it had rejected offers to sell Osimhen abroad, evidence they value him highly. Manager Rudi Garcia said Osimhen remains “invested 100% in the club” after scoring in Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Udinese.
Osimhen chose not to celebrate the goal, his first appearance since the controversial social media post. The Nigeria international joined Napoli for a club-record €81.3m in 2020 and was key to their first Serie A title in 33 years last season. Garcia insisted he has a “very good relationship” with Osimhen and believes the striker “loves this jersey”.
The manager added: “There have been a lot of things to manage in recent days.” Osimhen’s agent had threatened legal action against Napoli over the edited video posted on TikTok. The club have since deleted the post but stopped short of saying sorry in their statement.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
