Napoli had to wait for 33 years to lay their hand on the Serie A title with their last title coming in the days of Diego Armando Maradona; whom they have justifiably named their stadium after.
The wrestling of the Scudetto from the jaw of the northern Italian clubs by the team from Naples wouldn’t have been possible without the contribution of their Nigerian international, Victor Osihmhen.
With 47 goals for Napoli, he is the highest goalscoring African in the Serie A and currently holds the record for the most goals scored by an African in a single season (22 goals so far).
With this feat, the records set by George Weah ( 46 serie A goals) and Samuel Eto’o (21 goals in a single season) have been wiped out.
Osimhen would have had more goals and broken these records earlier in the season if only he was allowed to take some of the spot kicks if not all that Napoli had in the course of the 2022/2023 Italian Serie A season.
Prior to the game against Fiorentina, Napoli have had 7 penalties awarded to them and Osimhen did not step up to take any of them.
Many argued that it wasn’t right for the team to have shot out their leading goalscorer from the spot kick action, as this would have increased his goal tally.
With the Scudetto guaranteed after the game against Udinese, Napoli was once awarded a penalty in the 48th against Fiorentina and Osimhen stepped up but his kick was saved by Pietro Terracciano.
The first thing that came to mind after the kick was saved was, could this be the reason he hasn’t been taking penalties for the team?
He wasn’t under any pressure to score as the Italian title was already safely in their cabinet and nothing could have gone wrong.
He did have another opportunity to redeem himself in the 74th minute with another penalty awarded which he calmly converted to the relief of his teeming fans.
With both penalties awarded against Fiorentina taken by the goal king, one lost and one saved; is Napoli justified not to have made him their penalty taker?