Victor Osimhen: 3 reasons Robbie Fowler may be wrong about Super Eagles star being world-class

Even Super Eagles star Victor Osimhen must know that Robbie Fowler knows what a great striker looks like, Afrik-Foot reports.

The former Liverpool forward scored 183 goals for the Premier League giants and broke the 30-goal mark in three straight seasons back in his days. That makes his view on Victor Osimhen worth hearing.

Still, Fowler’s argument that Osimhen, Nigeria’s EA Sports FC 27 top man, is not yet world-class deserves another look. The Anfield great acknowledged that Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane and Liverpool duo of Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike are world class strikers.

He then bundled Osimhen together with a bunch he considered not yet at an elite level, including Lautaro Martinez, Viktor Gyökeres, and Julian Alvarez.

While the former Leeds United forward may have his reasons, concrete evidence hands Osimhen a strong case against Fowler’s verdict.

Osimhen’s goal record is already at an elite level

The first case is simply goals. Osimhen, who has kicked off the new campaign like a man on fire, has scored at a rate that puts him among the top strikers of his generation. His 2022-23 Serie A season is the clearest example.

The Nigerian scored 26 league goals in 32 appearances as Napoli won their first Serie A title since 1990. He became the first African player to score 26 goals in one Serie A season. He also passed George Weah’s previous African record of 46 Serie A goals. Osimhen finished that season hitting the 50 goal mark in the Italian top flight.

The achievement was not just about the number 26. Napoli needed those goals to win the league. Osimhen scored the opening goal of a match 10 times during that Serie A campaign, more than any other player in the division. His goals helped Napoli pull away from the rest of the league and end a 33-year wait for the Scudetto.

His scoring record also travelled with him to Turkey. During the 2024-25 season, Osimhen scored 37 goals and provided eight assists in 41 games for Galatasaray. He scored 26 league goals to win the Süper Lig Golden Boot and added five goals in four Turkish Cup matches. He also became Galatasaray’s highest-scoring foreign player in one Turkish season after passing Mario Jardel’s 34-goal mark from 2000-01.

That is not the record of an ordinary high-level striker. It is the record of a forward who repeatedly turns chances into goals across different leagues.

The individual awards say more than one person’s opinion

World-class status cannot be decided by one expert’s opinion alone. Osimhen has received recognition from people who work inside football and from major football organisations.

In December 2023, CAF named him African Player of the Year. He beat two elite competitors, Mohamed Salah and Achraf Hakimi, to win the award in Marrakech, Morocco. CAF’s voting panel included national team coaches, captains, media professionals and members of its technical committee.

The award followed a season in which Osimhen scored 27 goals in all competitions for Napoli and helped the club win Serie A. He also scored 10 goals in Nigeria’s 2023 AFCON qualifying campaign, finishing as the competition’s leading scorer.

Then came another major prize. Osimhen won the AIC Serie A Footballer of the Year award for 2022-23. That prize had previously gone to players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He became the first African player to win it.

He was also included on the shortlist for FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player award alongside Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and other elite names.

That does not mean Osimhen is automatically better than every player on that list. It does mean that his level of performance has already placed him in the conversation with the world’s leading players.

Osimhen has delivered when the pressure is high

A striker can score many goals and still struggle when the level rises. Osimhen has produced important performances in major competitions.

One of the strongest examples came in the 2025-26 Champions League. Galatasaray, who has not reached the knockout rounds of the competition in 12 years, went to Amsterdam to face Ajax, a club with a long European history. Osimhen did not just score once. He scored all three goals in a 3-0 win at the Johan Cruyff Arena. The hat-trick also made him the Champions League’s leading scorer after Matchday 4.

Months later, he produced another major European performance against Juventus. Galatasaray faced Juventus in the Champions League play-off round in February 2026. Osimhen scored Galatasaray’s first goal, was named Player of the Match, and helped the Turkish champions reach the last 16. The goal was his seventh in that Champions League campaign at that point.

UEFA’s records now list Osimhen as Nigeria’s all-time leading Champions League scorer with 16 goals and Nigeria’s leading scorer in all men’s UEFA club competitions with 26.

His career also has an important international foundation. Osimhen won the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup with Nigeria and took the Golden Boot at that tournament. He had already won the Golden Boot at the 2015 CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations. He later helped Nigeria reach the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final.

The argument is not that Osimhen has achieved everything in football. He has not. He has never won the Champions League or the senior FIFA World Cup.

The stronger point is that the evidence does not agree with Fowler’s assessment. Osimhen has gone from a promising young striker at Lille to a Serie A champion, African Player of the Year, Serie A’s leading scorer, a Turkish league champion and one of Nigeria’s most productive Champions League forwards.

So, if world-class means producing elite numbers, winning major individual awards, delivering in high-pressure matches and achieving at the highest level available to a player, there is now a serious case that Fowler’s verdict is outdated.

The question is no longer whether Osimhen has the tools to become world-class. His record suggests he has already built a strong case that he is.