Victor Osimhen is now officially the Nigerian player with the most goals in the history of the Italian Serie A.
Osimhen achieved the legendary record on Saturday when he scored one of the goals in Napoli’s 2-1 win over Atalanta to take his overall tally to 32.
The 25-year-old is now one goal ahead of Simmy Nwankwo who was up until Saturday the top Nigerian scorer.
Interestingly, Saturday’s outing started on a awful note for Osimhen as he accidentally gifted Atalanta the opener by conceding a penalty through a fortuitous hand ball.
Osimhen was however equal to the task as he turned the game around with a goal and assist for Eljif Elmas.
That spectacular performance helped Napoli fight back to win the top of the table showdown and go eight points clear of Atalanta.
Saturday’s pairing was a clash between the leaders and the side in second place, who between them had only one Serie A defeat all season
The Partenopei were looking to bounce back after seeing their run of 13 consecutive victories in all competitions halted by Liverpool in the Champions League midweek, though they still topped the group.
The hosts had the first chance on three minutes when another Nigerian striker in action, Ademola Lookman rolled across from the left for Rasmus Hojlund, forcing a save one-on-one from Alex Meret.
The corner kick from that smart move wreaked havoc as Osimhen handled the ball with his hands before Hojland and Merih Demiral attempts were charged down.
VAR intervened and Lookman converted the penalty with a ferocious strike into the near top corner.
However, Osimhen quickly made up for his mistake by scoring an equaliser for Napoli as he was allowed a free header on a Piotr Zielinski floated cross from a short corner.
Napoli turned it around completely when Osimhen broke away from Merih Demiral down the right and pulled back for Eljif Elmas to take a touch and score from 10 yards.
There were decent chances by both teams but the game was settled with the 2-1 scoreline in favour of Napoli, who now have 35 points from 13 matches.
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