Napoli confirm Victor Osimhen transfer stance as Chelsea sent message over £68m January move

Napoli director Mauro Meluso has suggested the club will be open to selling Victor Osimhen in January.

The striker was strongly linked with a move to Chelsea in the summer, as well as a potential switch to Saudi Arabia, but neither move materialised in the final days of the window.

With Napoli boss Antonio Conte making it clear Osimhen would not be brought back into his first-team squad, the 25-year-old secured a late loan move to Galatasaray, where he has two goals and three assists in four appearances.

Osimhen’s £109m release clause is no longer active and he would instead reportedly be available for £68m in January, with that figure dropping to £63m next summer.

Should Chelsea or any other club make a January move for Osimhen, it is believed that Galatasaray would receive £5m in compensation.

Reports from Corriere dello Sport suggest that the Nigerian forward is still keen to join Chelsea, though they face competition from Galatasaray who are considering making his move a permanent one.

Meluso has suggested the loan to Turkey was little more than a stopgap, with a longer-term decision likely to be made after Christmas.

“It was a last-minute solution so he would not lose the first three months of the season,” Meluso said during the Palermo Football Conference. “We will see in January.”

The Napoli director added: “He no longer wanted to be part of the first-team.

“He had received an important offer even before I arrived at Napoli, but [Napoli chairman] Aurelio De Laurentiis didn’t consider it because he thought about the club’s good.

“He may have made wrong decisions but did them to keep Napoli competitive.”