Header In Italy’s top flight for the 2022/23 season, many gave Juventus’ Dušan Vlahović a run for his money for Nigeria and Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, with the two players expected to battle it out for the league’s top goalscorer award. end of season PUNCH Sports supplement the reports
However, with this season halfway through, that hasn’t been the case.
Instead, it is Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman, the man competing with Osimhene for the Paolo Rossi award, rather than the Nigerian spectacle in Italy.
The Super Eagles pair are the first players to score double figures in Serie A this campaign. While Osimhene has scored 13 goals from 15 league games to top the Serie A scorers list, his compatriot has found the net on 11 occasions despite playing as a winger to remain in second place.
Both players have shown no signs of slowing down and may go head-to-head for the season’s top scorer award until the end of the season.
In the war of numbers, Osimhen and Lookman are not only competing to be the league’s top scorer. Both players are also tied for assists (four).
The Nigerians are having a great season with Napoli and Atalanta and their performances last weekend were proof of that.
After bagging a brace and another assist against Juventus in matchday 18, Osimhen, who can’t stop scoring at the moment, having scored 11 goals in his last 10 league games, found it again. net against Salerno to give Luciano Spalletti’s team a two-goal cushion.
After Osimhene’s impressive display on Saturday, Lookman went one step further the following day as he bagged a brace and an assist to keep his compatriot in contention for the league’s top goalscorer award.
The winger became the fourth Atalanta player to score 10 or more goals in his first Serie A campaign against the Bianconeri after 19 games, before a composed header took his tally to 11.
Jorgen Leschly Sorensen (1949-50), Karl Aage Hansen (1949-50) and Poul Rasmussen (1952-53) are the only others to achieve the feat as Lookman continues to prove his worth to Gian Piero Gasperini.
As well as helping keep Atalanta unbeaten in their last six games against Juve (2 V 4 and 4), equaling the longest unbeaten streak against the Bianconeri: six games unbeaten between 1963 and 1966, Lookman is the first Atalanta player to score a brace. Three consecutive games in all competitions since the 2006-07 season.
Although Osimh currently leads the goalscoring charts, the battle between the Napoli forward and Lookman will continue with the former Leicester winger hoping to cash in on his current form.
Speaking of money, the two Nigerians have also seen their market valuation rise after their impressive season.
Heading into the season, the former Lille striker was valued at €60m, but a season with Napoli at the top of the Serie A table means the striker is now valued at €70m, €10m more than when he started the campaign. .
For his part, Lookman is not left out of the list of players whose value has increased. The Atalanta star is currently worth €20m, a hefty sum for someone who started the season with a market value of €9m.
