Chelsea prepare N5bn annual salary for Osimhen – Report

English Premier League club, Chelsea are reportedly ready to double Victor Osimhen’s current salary at Napoli as they hope to lure the Nigerian striker to Stamford Bridge, with Manchester United and Tottenham also interested in signing the in-form striker.

According to CalcioMercato, Todd Boehly is ready to break the bank once again to sign one of football’s most exciting talents in Serie A’s leading goalscorer this season, with Osimhen leading Napoli’s charge for a first Scudetto title this century with 19 goals in 21 league games.

Osimhen is Napoli’s second-highest earner with a salary of €104,808 (N51 million) weekly and €419,232 (N204 million) monthly. In total, he earns €5 million (N2.5 billion) annually at the title-chasing Italian side.

If the report from CalcioMercato is anything to go by, the striker will pocket the sum of N5 billion annually if he agrees to join the Blues.

“Ten Hag has put him (Osimhen) at the top of their Manchester United reinforcements list, Chelsea has returned to show up in recent days”, the website wrote.

“Todd Boehly is ready to double the Nigerian striker’s current salary of €4.5 million net. The Premier League calls and De Laurentiis already has the answer ready: an offer of €120/€130 million will be needed to evaluate a sale of Osimhen”.

As per the report, Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis is unwilling to sell his star forward for cheap, with the Italian slapping a €130 million (£115 million) price tag on the 24-year-old ahead of the summer transfer window. And as we have seen from Chelsea under Boehly, this fee could actually be met.

The Blues do face competition to sign Osimhen, though, with journalist Rudy Galetti reporting that Tottenham is keen to sign the striker should Harry Kane leave north London this summer, a prospect that is slowly growing with Antonio Conte likely to leave as manager at the end of the season.

Whilst Tottenham could soon have the funds to sign Osimhen, Chelsea’s spending record under Boehly, despite how short his tenure has been at the club, strongly suggests that the 10th-place Premier League side can blow Daniel Levy out of the water with another British-record bid.