Gardi spoke to Sky Sports Deutschland<\/a> about those deals and revealed the extent of his influence.<\/p>\n\u201cAt the end of the market last summer, I called the coach and the club to propose this player, and they thought it was a joke,\u201d confessed the representative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did not take me seriously. Victor Osimhen, one of the best strikers in the world, why would he come to Galatasaray at 26 years old? Why would Napoli give him?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was towards the end of the market. People say luck, chance, but it was no luck, no chance. It happened with Icardi, it happened with Davinson Sanchez, it happened with Zaniolo, all these players arrived at the end of the market.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these big players are monitored by me. The last days of the market anything can happen, some details in contracts can get cancelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the market finished and other deals collapsed, I stepped in and I had a clear plan. I had a few hours to execute the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osimhen had signed a new contract with Napoli with a release clause reported to be around \u20ac110m and a huge salary, although the Partenopei went into that summer believing he would be sold a few months later.<\/p>\n
When nobody came in with the necessary figure, he was stuck and this is when Gardi proposed him to Galatasaray.<\/p>\n
![\"Victor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Victor-Osimhen-Airplane-Napoli-Galatasaray.jpeg\")
Victor Osimhen gets on the Airplane for the move from Napoli to Galatasaray @george.gardi Instagram<\/p>\n
\u201cI decreased the release clause from Napoli, which was over \u20ac100m, to \u20ac75m. I convinced Victor to extend the contract for one more year, and open the doors to a loan move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were many problems, we were at the airport and the UEFA lists were closing the day after, there were problems with the contract at Napoli, he was not sure whether to leave or not, and I convinced him to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking to myself, what happens if he doesn\u2019t come now? There were thousands of people already waiting in Istanbul and those were the longest two hours of my football career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gardi admits that Napoli were left to regret some of their decisions regarding Osimhen, as the \u20ac75m release clause seemed to be insufficient in hindsight.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a strong determination to come to Gala from the beginning, he had great respect for the club. After one year, when the clause was at \u20ac75m, this summer market was not the \u20ac75m of last summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cNapoli had thought it was a big amount at the time, but the market completely changed this summer. If you look at the transactions in the market, many were much higher than \u20ac75m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the best Number 9s in the world, perhaps one of the best, so to buy him at \u20ac75m was a good financial operation for the club,\u201d added Gardi.<\/p>\n
![\"ISTANBUL,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Victor-Osimhen-applaud.jpg\")
ISTANBUL, TURKEY \u2013 NOVEMBER 7: Victor Osimhen of Galatasaray celebrates victory during the UEFA Europa League 2024\/25 League Phase MD4 match between Galatasaray A.S. and Tottenham Hotspur at Rams Park on November 7, 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Ahmad Mora\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis negotiation also lasted many months, because Victor had to decide where he wanted to play. He could choose among the best clubs in the world, only some of them came out in the press, but there were many more.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took his decision around the beginning of July and the clause was ending at the beginning of July, so when the clause expired suddenly they received offers \u20ac10-15m higher than the clause.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor was very strong and he said I am only going to play with Gala. That helped us a lot in the negotiations. They did an unbelievable job to find \u20ac75m to pay Napoli in one year, we made history to bring one of the best strikers in the world to Galatasaray at the peak of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISTANBUL, TURKEY – SEPTEMBER 21: Victor Osimhen of Galatasaray looks on during the Turkish Super big match between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-294516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"ISTANBUL,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Victor-Osimhen-close-up.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"NAPLES,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ssc-napoli-v-bologna-fc-serie-a-tim.jpg\")
NAPLES, ITALY \u2013 MAY 11: Victor Osimhen of SSC Napoli stands disappointed during the Serie A match between SSC Napoli and Bologna FC at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on May 11, 2024 in Naples, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Pecoraro\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n