Fenerbahce’s manager, Jose Mourinho, acknowledged that Galatasaray signed a “fantastic player” in Victor Osimhen, but criticized the striker’s behavior, accusing him of “diving too much.”
Osimhen’s future was heavily speculated during the transfer window, with strong interest from clubs like Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, and Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli.
Al-Ahli nearly secured Osimhen after agreeing on an €80 million (£67.3m) deal with Napoli, but the Nigerian international declined the move to Saudi Arabia.
John Obi Mikel revealed that Chelsea had also reached an agreement with Osimhen on personal terms, but the deal to bring him to Stamford Bridge fell through due to “minor details.”
Ultimately, Osimhen joined Galatasaray on a season-long loan and is expected to make his debut against Rizespor this weekend.
He will also be looking ahead to a high-profile match against fierce rivals Fenerbahce later this month, where he’ll face Mourinho once again.
‘Osimhen is a fantastic player,’ the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ said in a wide-ranging interview with HT Spor.
‘He is a player that if I was in a club with the potential to pay 70 to 75 million, I would buy. He’s a fantastic player,’
‘Of course, he comes in different circumstances but in the end the circumstances don’t matter. ‘What matters is Galatasaray got an absolutely fantastic player.’
While Mourinho is a huge admirer of Osimhen’s ability, he does not appreciate his playacting – and told him as much they last came face to face.
‘I don’t have problems with Victor. In fact, we have a very good relationship,’ the Portuguese added.
‘But every time I play against him I speak with him because I don’t like the way he behaves, he dives too much. The last time we played, Roma against Napoli, we had this conversation.
‘I told him, “Look, you are one of the two best African players – it’s you and [Mohamed] Salah. In the past Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, George Weah, you cannot behave like this”.
‘He dives too much, that’s my problem with him. But after ten minutes, we are fine. We have a very good relationship.
‘For the Turkish league it is fantastic and for Galatasaray it is fantastic too.’
Osimhen said it was a ‘very easy decision’ to push through a temporary move to Galatasaray when it became clear they were keen to sign him in the summer.
‘When I heard of the interest from Galatasaray, it was a very easy decision for me,’ he told Turkish media.
‘I knew how big Galatasaray was and how much like a family it was, and it had incredible fans.
‘Henry Onyekuru is my friend and he played for Galatasaray before and is still a fan. He told me how wonderful the people here are, so it was an easy decision for me.’
