Osimhen .. a superhero who restored the glories of Naples

The eye came out of its socket, twenty fractures, six pieces of metal, signs that transformed the Nigerian Victor Osimhen with his black mask into a superhero in the style of “Batman”. time.
“As if his face was under a pressure machine,” this is how the Italian surgeon Gianpaolo Tartaro described Osmien’s injury after he supervised surgery on the Nigerian’s face nearly 16 months ago.
On November 21, 2021, the striker suffered a severe injury to his left cheek and eye socket after a strong head clash with Slovakian Inter player Milan Shkriniar, during the two teams’ league match.
Two days later, he underwent a successful surgery that kept him away for nearly two months, during which Napoli lost his lead and the title in the end.
His surgeon recounted: “Osimhen’s injury was not a simple fracture in the cheekbone, but also affected several bones in the face.
Some feared that this injury would constitute a fatal blow to the young player’s career, who was still at the age of twenty-two.
However, a three-and-a-half-hour surgery restored the left side of the face and returned it to the stadiums.
Osimhen resumed individual training about two weeks after surgery and returned in mid-January.
After he was initially called up to Nigeria’s squad to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations early last year, he was excluded after six days for not recovering enough, in addition to being infected with the Corona virus.
Having scored five goals in 10 league matches prior to his accident, he returned with a black carbon mask to protect the fractured area and allow him physical contact.
His surgeon said: “The mask that everyone thinks is easy, unfortunately, is tailored at certain points: it heals where there are fractures. We have to study a mask that fits its shape, it is not a trivial matter, on the contrary, there is a nerve. Everything is very complicated.” .
Convinced, Osimhen finished the season with 14 league goals and Napoli finished third, seven points behind title-winners AC Milan.
After the criticism he faced in his first season in southern Italy where he struggled to live up to the high expectations that accompanied his €80m move from Lille in the summer of 2019, and struggles last season, Osimhen has exploded.
He missed nearly a month at the beginning of the season after suffering a foot injury during the 4-1 victory over Liverpool, England, in the first round of the group stage.
He returned with miraculous strength and currently tops the Italian league standings with 21 goals, and he formed, along with Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a terrible local and continental duo, and they contributed to Napoli reaching the quarter-finals of the main continental competition for the first time in its history.
He still wears that mask and rises without fear or hesitation to score goals with his head, like his last two goals against Torino (4-0).
This mask has come to symbolize the gamer and is now worn by many boys and sometimes even dogs, after their superhero.
In the Turin match in particular, one of the children accompanying the players entered the field wearing a mask and his hair was dyed blonde to look like a Nigerian.
Osimhen commented, “I saw his blonde hair too and he wore a mask like me. I hope to meet him and take a picture with him. It’s great to see love through these gestures, it’s special.
Although he can now take off the mask after more than a year of wearing it, club doctor Roberto Ruggiero says, “Osimhen is completely healed, he still wears the protective mask because it gives him a sense of security.
Some Neapolitans, young and old, have even chosen to embody the Nigerian look by painting their faces black and wearing masks, as they did last month at the city’s carnival.
This sparked criticism from some and linked the black paint to racism, while many defended this behavior, such as Italy coach Roberto Mancini, who said: “Where some see racism, I only see aesthetic.”
Jamalia will return to the poor southern city a glory that has waited since the days of Argentine legend Diego Maradona, who led her team to its only two league titles in 1987 and 1990.