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Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen could be the first-ever African to win the Serie A Golden Boot.
Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen is currently enjoying the best season of his career for Napoli where he has been in imperious form.
The 24-year-old has scored 12 goals in 14 games this season for I Partenopei and is currently top of the 2022/23 Serie A goalscorers table.
That means the Nigerian is on course to make history and become the first-ever African Capocannoniere if he can maintain this red-hot run of form.
‘Capocannoniere’ is an Italian word that literally translates to ‘head gunner’ and it is the title of the top scorer in every Serie A season, although the award has officially been renamed the Paolo Rossi Award in 2021.
African scorers in Serie A
The Italian top flight has historically not been a good hunting ground for African strikers, George Weah remains the most prolific African in Serie A history with 46 goals in 114 appearances all for AC Milan.
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However, the legendary Ballon d’Or winner never came close to becoming Capocannoniere as he only managed 13 goals in his most prolific Serie A season in 1996/97.
Senegalese winger Keita Balde had an impressive 2016/17 campaign for Lazio when he scored 16 goals but still finished a long way behind Edin Dzeko who won the award for that season with 29 Serie A goals.
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Nigerian striker Simy Nwankwo put up an unlikely, yet credible challenge for Capocannoniere in the 2020/21 season when he scored 20 goals for Crotone.
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Simy’s goals couldn’t stop 19th-placed Crotone from getting relegated but his tally was the joint-fifth highest in the league that season, nine behind Cristiano Ronaldo who claimed the golden boot.
The closest any African has come so far was all the way back in the 2010/11 season when Samuel Eto’o scored 21 goals for Inter Milan to finish third in the race.
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The Cameroonian striker was outdone by Napoli’s Edinson Cavani with 26 goals and Antonio Di Natale who scored 28 goals for Udinese.
Osimhen’s chance to make history
Osimhen already has the fourth most prolific Serie A season by any African with the 14 goals he scored for Napoli in the 2021/22 season, one more than George Weah managed in his best Serie A season.
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And now Osimhen will set his sights on becoming the most prolific African in Serie A history by surpassing Eto’o’s 21-goal tally from 12 years ago and it is an achievable target as he already has 12 goals.
But if Osimhen really wants to immortalise his name in Italian football, then he has to aim to win the Capocannoniere gong as the first African to do so.
As earlier mentioned, Osimhen already has 12 goals in 14 games, at least three more than anyone in the league so he is on the right trajectory to achieve the goal barring any unforeseen circumstances.
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However, the top scorer award in Serie A is significantly harder to win compared to other top five leagues in recent seasons and Osimhen must know exactly what he’s up against to make it happen.
Fabio Quagliarella’s 26-goal haul in 2018/19 is the lowest tally to have won Capocannoniere in the last seven Serie A seasons. For comparison, no Premier League player has scored more than 23 goals in any of the last four seasons.
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Even speaking purely in the context of this season, Osimhen has his compatriot Ademola Lookman and Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez breathing down his neck with nine goals each.
Martinez has scored 38 Serie A goals in his last two full seasons combined (Osimhen has 24 goals in the same period) so he’s definitely no stranger to finding the back of the net.
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But perhaps the greatest threat to Osimhen’s ambition is Lazio’s Ciro Immobile, the three-time Capocannoniere including the last one and also the joint-highest single-season scorer in Serie A history with 36 goals in 2019/20.
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The Italian currently has seven goals in 14 games for Lazio this season but Osimhen’s five-goal margin is not insurmountable by any means given Immobile's reputation as a streaky scorer.
In conclusion, Victor Osimhen is on course to make history but his path is not exactly clear yet and he must remain consistent, prolific and most importantly fit for the remaining 20 league games this season to have a chance to become the first African Capocannoniere.
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