A look into the crowd, one person among many, a thought, a memory, a shared feeling. And then the will that is set in motion. The story is this: Victor Osimhen, the Nigerian striker that Napoli bought this summer for the record sum of 70 million euros, posts a photo on his social profiles and asks for help from his many fans (on Instagram he has half a million followers). The photo is of a girl, African, without one leg. With a basket on her head, full of water bottles, the girl walks through the streets of a market supporting herself with a crutch.
«Friends, can you help me find this girl? If you have news of her write to me: I want to help her ». No sooner said than done. The story has a happy ending. The girl is found. To tell it was Osimhen himself who has always published a stories on Instagram while talking on the phone with her. Next to the posted photo he wrote: «I found it, I want to thank everyone those who have shown concern about his situation. God bless you”.
What went into Osimhen’s head? Simply: the affection of those who see something of themselves in others, of those who recognize in the history of others something that belongs to their own life. Osimhen is Nigerian. He takes his first steps on the outskirts of Lagos, where he grows, in decay and misery. There is a saying over there. And he says: the only thing to do when you are born in Lagos is to leave as soon as possible. It is one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in the world. Osimhen could take a bad turn. Many of his friends do.
But more than them, Victor holds a dream. To become a footballer, to live from football. It is a dream that the boy defends from everything, preserving it. And it keeps him alive, even when he is forced – to help his family, Victor is the last of seven siblings – to sell water and soft drinks at Lagos traffic lights.
The first football boots – bigger than three sizes, old and deformed – Osimhen collects them in a landfill, fishing for them in the garbage. He begins to play with them, begins his story that leads him first to enter a football school, then to win the Under 17 World Cup with Nigeria and finally to emigrate to Europe, first in Germany at Wolfsburg, then in Belgium at Charleroi and then in France, where he shines with the Lille shirt.
Now, at 22, the poor child who sold drinks at traffic lights is the center-forward of a Napoli aiming for the Champions League. His life has changed, but he has not forgotten his origins. He saw the girl without a leg, listened to the heart, tracked her down. And it was a bit like finding himself: the best thing that can happen to a man.
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