In a surprising revelation, Lille’s president Olivier Letang has disclosed that the club only netted a mere €7 million from Victor Osimhen’s high-profile transfer to Napoli in 2020. This startling admission comes despite the widely reported €71 million fee for the Nigerian striker’s move to the Italian club.
Speaking on the French television program L’Equipe du Soir, Letang shed light on the complex financial structure of the deal orchestrated by his predecessor, Gerard Lopez. While Napoli officially paid around €71 million, with €50 million in cash, the remaining amount was made up through player exchanges that have since come under scrutiny.
The deal included goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis, valued at €4.8 million, and three Napoli youth players: Ciro Palmieri (€7 million), Claudio Manzi (€4 million), and Luigi Liguori (€4 million). Remarkably, only Karnezis ever played for Lille, with the youth players immediately returning to Italy on loan before continuing their careers elsewhere.
Letang explained the stark reality of the transfer’s finances: “From the total of €70 million, we must subtract the costs for acquiring these four Napoli players, paid a total of €20 million when their real value was zero. We must also add to the calculation all the intermediaries, capital gains, and commissions, which bring the actual income to €7 million.”
The Lille president contrasted this with more straightforward and profitable transfers, such as Carlos Baleba to Brighton for €30 million and Amadou Onana to Everton for €40 million, emphasizing that these deals were free from complex commission structures and intermediaries.
This revelation has reignited discussions about the transparency of football transfers and the use of player exchanges to inflate deal values. It also raises questions about the true beneficiaries of such high-profile transfers, as clubs like Lille appear to gain far less than the headline figures suggest.
The Osimhen transfer has already been the subject of investigations for potential false accounting and tax fraud, and Letang’s comments are likely to attract further scrutiny from financial and football authorities alike.
