Lille CEO Letang confirms Osimhen's transfer fee to Napoli

Napoli paid Lille €68 million for the permanent signing of Victor Osimhen, club president Olivier Letang has confirmed.

Letang who succeeded Gerard Lopez as Lille CEO last December, dismissed reports that the Ligue 1 champions collected €81m for the Nigeria international in July 2020.

Osimhen joined Napoli on a five-year contract after his outstanding debut season in the French top-flight where he won the 2020 Prix Marc-Vivien Foe.

Letang, in response to Lopez who claimed Osimhen was sold for €71.3m with €10m bonuses, explained that the valuation of the four players added in the deal by Napoli caused the confusion.

"Initially everyone thinks that the sale of Osimhen is 81 million euros," the former Rennes president told La Voix des Sports via L'Equipe.

"The sale of Osimhen on the transfer agreement is 68 million euros. Four players arrived from Naples.

"The valuation of these four players, in aggregate, is according to the specialized players a maximum of 500,000 euros. These four players were bought for twenty million euros."

The 48-year-old added that no agent was paid by Lille to complete Osimhen's departure to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

"Not a single intermediary was paid. An agent was indeed appointed on July 27, 2020 and the transfer contract was signed on July 27, 2020. This is also factual so we must stop lying and manipulating," Letang said.

Osimhen has settled in well in Naples following the success of the move, and he scored 10 goals in 30 matches for the Parthenopeans across all competitions last season.

However, the 22-year-old started the 2021-22 Serie A campaign on the wrong foot after he was shown a straight red card, 22 minutes into their opening fixture against Venezia on August 22.

As punishment, he was handed a two-match ban and he could miss Saturday's clash against Juventus but Luciano Spalletti's side is working to appeal against it.