Napoli striker Victor Osimhen is on the verge of taking legal action after the club posted a series of TikToks that appeared to mock his performances. But is this the rogue actions of a member of the social media team, or indicative of a wider breakdown in the relationship between the player and Napoli???
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hi everyone, Adam Cleary, 442 here,
00:06 and it's not gonna be a long video this one,
00:08 but it is gonna be a weird one.
00:10 All right, dead easy question to start us off,
00:11 have you seen what is happening with Viktor Oshiman
00:15 and Napoli, the club that he plays for?
00:18 Because if not, (laughs)
00:21 just watch this.
00:25 (bell dings)
00:27 The headline for you straight off the bat
00:29 is that Viktor Oshiman and his representatives
00:31 are currently considering taking legal action
00:35 against Napoli because of a social media post they did
00:39 after their recent fixture.
00:41 Oh my God, Adam, a football player
00:43 is threatening legal action against his club
00:45 because of something they posted on social media.
00:47 This must be some legal landmine, surely.
00:50 It's something libelous, they've called him something,
00:52 they've accused him of doing something awful, right?
00:57 No, it's this.
00:58 - Give me penalty, please, give me penalty, please.
01:01 (squeaking)
01:03 Oh, lovely, thank you, you give me penalty, thanks.
01:08 (squeaking)
01:10 Penalty.
01:11 - Yeah, so if you are sitting there,
01:12 scratching your heads, wondering what the hell that was,
01:14 it's a TikTok, that's what loads of them,
01:17 like Napoli drew nil-nil with Bologna at the weekend,
01:20 Oshiman missed a penalty, and for some reason,
01:22 the admin of Napoli's official TikTok account
01:26 decided to just do a silly video, making fun of Oshiman.
01:30 Now I'm gonna need somebody much younger than me
01:32 to explain the context behind that,
01:33 is that a thing, is give me a penalty, please,
01:36 is that everywhere at the minute,
01:38 is that something you see a lot?
01:39 'Cause I don't know, I'm 35.
01:42 Anyway, understandably, Oshiman's representative,
01:44 Roberto Calderna, was not happy about that,
01:47 and said what happened today on Napoli's official profile
01:50 on the TikTok platform is not acceptable.
01:53 A video mocking Victor was first made public,
01:55 and then, but now belatedly, deleted.
01:57 We reserve the right to take legal action
01:59 and use any useful initiative to protect Victor.
02:02 He also said when interviewed about it
02:04 that the post was seriously damaging,
02:06 and that Oshiman had been the victim of fake news,
02:09 and, I mean, it's bad, and it's stupid,
02:13 but I don't know if I'd go that far.
02:14 Now you might understandably be sitting there thinking,
02:16 oh, well, that's pretty silly,
02:18 it's a whole load of nothing,
02:19 I'm glad that's the end of the video,
02:21 and there's no more to talk about,
02:22 and wrong, buddy, 'cause I've been a-googling.
02:25 The same official Napoli TikTok account
02:28 also got into a bit of bother with Oshiman recently
02:30 when it posted this.
02:32 ♪ I like coconuts, coconuts ♪
02:35 ♪ I, I like coconuts ♪
02:37 ♪ Like a coconut, coconut, coconut ♪
02:40 Now I've desperately tried to research that one
02:43 in the vain hope that it's not the kind of joke
02:45 that I seriously suspect it is,
02:46 and the best I could come up with
02:48 is apparently there is a rumor
02:50 that one time Oshiman put coconut on a pizza
02:54 and all the Italians found out about it
02:56 and they make fun of him for it.
02:58 I have no idea if that's true,
03:01 which, admittedly, that much better than the alternative.
03:05 Now Oshiman has responded by going on his Instagram
03:07 and deleting every single picture of him
03:10 playing for Napoli on there,
03:11 very much, as you know, standard practice
03:14 when going through a breakup,
03:15 but as anybody knows,
03:17 he is probably just actually archiving them,
03:19 not deleting them, so if they do smooth it out,
03:21 he can put them back up, pretend it never happened.
03:22 And while we're on the subject, Kelly,
03:24 I know your boyfriend watches all of these videos,
03:26 so if he could see his way to coming
03:28 and getting the NutriBullet you left here six months ago,
03:31 that'd be swell.
03:32 (static)
03:32 (beep)
03:33 (sad music)
03:36 - Fight.
03:47 ♪ Be happy, happy ♪
03:49 - But anyway, what's all this about then?
03:51 I can see you need more answers than this,
03:53 'cause I certainly did when I was looking at it all,
03:55 and let's just say the current relationship
03:58 between Viktor Oshiman and Napoli is very complicated.
04:02 So as you probably remember,
04:03 last season Napoli were crowned
04:05 improbably Serie A champions.
04:07 It was the first time they won it
04:08 in like a gajillion billion years,
04:10 and Oshiman fired them to that title
04:12 with 26 goals in the league.
04:14 Now the sad reality of these situations
04:16 is always that unless you're the top, top dogs
04:19 in that league, if you achieve anything
04:21 and you have any kind of success,
04:22 you are leaving yourself open to losing your best players.
04:25 Now Napoli almost certainly are aware
04:27 that at some point they're gonna have to cash in
04:29 on Viktor Oshiman, and they're probably
04:30 really looking forward to getting
04:32 all the money he'll bring in.
04:33 Viktor Oshiman, though he's undoubtedly
04:35 really enjoyed his time at Napoli,
04:37 will probably be thinking about playing
04:39 for a much bigger club, either in Spain or in England,
04:41 or possibly even in Saudi Arabia.
04:43 Who knows what his motivations are,
04:45 so he knows he's gonna be going as well.
04:47 But of course, neither party can come out
04:49 and say these things.
04:50 Napoli have to pretend they wanna protect
04:52 their star investment and they wanna continue
04:54 to be at the top of that league,
04:55 and Viktor Oshiman can't just say,
04:56 "Oh, I wanna leave now."
04:58 He's gotta keep the fans on side,
04:59 so he's gotta look like he's willing to stay be there.
05:02 Stay be there?
05:03 Stay be there.
05:04 I've watched three TikTok videos
05:06 and my brain's already fucking jammed.
05:08 So, and you've seen this a million times,
05:10 the club have gotta make it look like
05:11 it's the player who's gonna wanna leave,
05:13 and the player's gotta make it look like
05:14 it's the club who are forcing him out.
05:17 It's a tale as old as time,
05:19 and it started this summer.
05:20 Napoli managed to get a two-year contract extension
05:23 to Oshiman, but it wasn't really very good,
05:25 so he hasn't signed it,
05:26 and that's kinda where the tension has come
05:28 between Oshiman and sections of the support.
05:31 And then add to that this mural.
05:33 That is Cavazquelia being crowned King of Naples
05:36 by Maradona following the historic title win.
05:39 Now, he was a great player last season.
05:41 He undoubtedly deserves that accolade,
05:43 but it was seen by some as a very pointed overlooking
05:48 of Oshiman's contribution.
05:50 Now, you can read whatever the hell you want to read
05:53 into that particular decision.
05:54 I'm not gonna get into the whole historic relationship
05:57 between Italian football fans
05:58 and players of certain backgrounds right now,
06:01 but the implication is certainly there,
06:04 and there's also the implication
06:06 that Oshiman took it that way as well.
06:07 And then, of course, the whole AFCON thing as well,
06:10 because we've got that coming up this summer,
06:11 and Oshiman's a massive part of that Nigeria squad
06:14 who have to be ranked as fairly high favorites
06:17 for that tournament, but, ugh.
06:20 Napoli's own president, Aurelio De Laurentiis,
06:22 did say in 2022 that the club
06:25 would not be signing African players anymore
06:28 unless they agreed not to play in AFCON.
06:32 He said, and I promise you this is a quote,
06:34 "Guys, don't talk to me about the Africans anymore.
06:38 "I love them, but either they sign a waiver
06:40 "to pull out of playing in AFCON,
06:42 "because otherwise, between that and Copa America,
06:44 "they're never available,
06:45 "and we're the suckers who pay their wages."
06:47 (laughs)
06:48 I mean, you must hear that and just think,
06:50 "Well, what's the problem?
06:51 "The president said you can't go to AFCON
06:53 "if you're playing for Napoli, so that's the end of that.
06:56 "That's a perfectly fine thing to both say
06:59 "and somehow think, so Oshiman won't be going.
07:02 "What's the problem?"
07:03 Well, the problem is that Oshiman
07:05 doesn't give a shit about any of that.
07:07 He loves playing for Nigeria,
07:09 and he will be going to AFCON,
07:10 and he's pretty much said to the club,
07:11 "Unless you physically hold me down,
07:13 "unless you kill me,
07:15 "I will be going and playing in that tournament."
07:17 So again, friction.
07:21 So yes, you take all that, you put it in a big pot,
07:23 you stir the pot, and you've got an official TikTok account
07:27 thinking that it's okay to make fun of your star striker,
07:29 because, well, things aren't going great at the minute.
07:32 And it should be said, in the interests of complete fairness,
07:36 you have seen those two TikToks about Viktor Oshiman.
07:39 That is kind of just the vibe of this account.
07:44 Here's another recent one they did.
07:46 (speaking in foreign language)
07:50 You could give me 100 years, 100 years,
07:56 and nothing else to do,
07:58 and I could never, ever figure out
08:00 what that is supposed to be.
08:03 I don't get it.
08:04 So yes, we leave this story at the point
08:05 where the official TikTok account
08:07 have deleted both of those Oshiman posts.
08:09 You've seen the club themselves
08:11 have declined to comment about the whole situation
08:14 when asked, and Oshiman has been selected for tonight,
08:17 'cause it is, what day is it?
08:18 Wednesday, for tonight's Napoli match against,
08:21 how do I not know this?
08:24 Udinese.
08:25 If I was Viktor Oshiman,
08:26 and I scored at any point in that game,
08:28 I would celebrate wildly in front of my own fans,
08:32 and when they were all hyped up,
08:33 I would simply produce a mobile phone from my pocket.
08:36 I would slam it on the floor.
08:38 I would jump up and down.
08:40 I would crush the ever-loving shit out of that thing,
08:43 and when they're all stood there, completely shocked,
08:46 I would look them all, somehow, in the eyes,
08:48 and just say, "That's two.
08:51 "See what happens if you do three."
08:54 But I mean, I'm mentally unwell,
08:56 so probably not great advice.
08:58 Anyway, though, that's all we've got time for,
09:00 and this is normally the point in the video
09:01 where I'm like, "Ooh, let us know what you make
09:03 "of the whole thing in the comments below,"
09:04 but genuinely, more than I have ever meant this before
09:07 in my entire life, I don't really understand any of it.
09:10 Those are just the facts.
09:11 If someone could decipher what any of those TikToks
09:15 are supposed to mean, including the "What is she?" one,
09:18 because I can't, brain won't compute, please,
09:20 in the comments, I would like to learn,
09:23 or even just tell me about it on Twitter.
09:25 I'm genuinely very eager to discuss all of this.
09:27 @AdamCleary, C-L-E-R-Y, the 442 socials.
09:30 Don't bother them with this,
09:31 but they're in the corner of the video.
09:33 I haven't got the mags to show you
09:35 because I may be packing for some unspecified reason,
09:37 and until I tell you what that is,
09:39 I've been Adam Cleary, this is 442,
09:41 what the hell, and I'll see you soon.
09:43 Goodbye.
09:44 (blows kiss)
09:45 (beep)
09:46 ♪ Yeah, yeah, time behind me ♪
09:47 ♪ Let's go, go, go ♪
09:48 ♪ Let's go, go, go ♪
09:49 ♪ Just stand for your epic goal ♪
09:50 ♪ Time behind me ♪