Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen has withdrawn from penalty-taking duty for Napoli after a now-infamous series of TikTok videos were released to the club’s social media accounts in recent weeks.
The Nigerian was enraged when two apparently offensive films were released to the club’s TikTok account, one of which mocked him as appealing for a penalty and secondly his missed penalty in a Serie A match against Bologna at the end of September.
The recordings sparked outrage among Osimhen’s followers and led to the dismissal of one of Napoli’s social media officials.
Since the incident, Napoli have played three matches and been awarded penalties in every one of those games, yet Osimhen has not taken any of them.
Instead, Piotr Zielinski took on the responsibility against Udinese as well as against Real Madrid in Wednesday night’s Champions League clash at the Maradona.
Matteo Politano took the injury-time kick against Lecce in the game that was played between the two aforementioned fixtures.
According to reports from La Repubblica, reported via TMW, it was Osimhen himself who decided to take himself off penalty duty, having felt unnecessarily mocked by the club’s social media team.
Osimhen had scored two of the three spot-kicks he took in Serie A during the title-winning 2022/23 season, and had scored one of the two he had taken in the early stages of the 2023/24 campaign.
