{"id":1239996,"date":"2022-10-31T19:18:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T19:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/31\/victor-osimhen-first-serie-a-hat-trick-leaves-nigeria-striker-hungry-for-more\/"},"modified":"2022-10-31T19:18:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T19:18:11","slug":"victor-osimhen-first-serie-a-hat-trick-leaves-nigeria-striker-hungry-for-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/31\/victor-osimhen-first-serie-a-hat-trick-leaves-nigeria-striker-hungry-for-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Osimhen: First Serie A hat-trick leaves Nigeria striker hungry for more"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Victor Osimhen\u2019s treble against Sassuolo has taken him to seven goals in eight Serie A appearances this season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nigeria international Victor Osimhen hopes he can continue his goalscoring form after netting a hat-trick for Napoli in the 4-0 win over Sassuolo in Serie A.<\/span><\/p>\n

He scored twice in the first 19 minutes and dinked in his third 13 minutes from time to make it seven league goals this season \u2013 and give him a share of first place in the Golden Boot race with Austrian Marko Arnautovic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my first professional hat-trick so I\u2019m really excited about it,\u201d Osimhen told BBC Sport Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great return after a few challenges at the start of the season and hopefully I can continue this form.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a striker you always want to help your team so I want to stay hungry for more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Osimhen spent over a month out with a thigh injury but has scored six goals in his past four outings across all competitions since his return.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has become the fifth African to score a hat-trick Italian Serie A after Liberia\u2019s George Weah (for AC Milan in 1998), Cameroon\u2019s Patrick Mboma (Cagliari in 1999), Egypt\u2019s Mohamed Salah (AS Roma in 2016) and Senegal\u2019s Keita Balde (Lazio in 2017).<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Wolfsburg and Charleroi forward Osimhen <\/span>moved to Italy from Lille two years ago<\/span> and, after two \u201clearning seasons\u201d, the Super Eagles star is leading the way in Napoli\u2019s hunt for a first league title in 33 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo-one knows it all. I continue to grow and learn,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Napoli are back in action on Tuesday, when they travel to Liverpool in their final Champions League Group A match (20:00 GMT). Both teams are already assured of a place in the last 16.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surpassing Maradona\u2019s records<\/h3>\n

With Osimhen in clinical form, <\/span>Luciano Spalletti\u2019s Napoli<\/span> have built a five-point lead at the top of Serie A after 12 rounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

The club\u2019s current run of 13 straight wins in all competitions has surpassed the previous record of 11 set by Diego Maradona\u2019s side in 1986-87, the season in which the Argentina legend captained Napoli to their first ever league title.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to congratulate all of my team-mates. They\u2019re top players and the whole squad is blessed with quality,\u201d Osimhen told <\/span>the club website.<\/span>external-link<\/title><\/svg><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d also like to thank the coach for the faith he\u2019s shown in me and I\u2019m keen to keep this up, both individually and collectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I score I dedicate my goal to my daughter. This hat-trick is for her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in June, Osimhen scored four goals as Nigeria <\/span>thrashed minnows Sao Tome e Principe 10-0<\/span> in qualifying for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

An Under-17 World Cup winner with the West Africans in 2015, he is the top scorer in qualifying for the 2023 Nations Cup, with five goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Osimhen\u2019s treble against Sassuolo has taken him to seven goals in eight Serie A appearances this season Nigeria international Victor Osimhen hopes he can continue his goalscoring form after netting a hat-trick for Napoli in the 4-0 win over Sassuolo in Serie A. He scored twice in the first 19 minutes and dinked in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1239998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1239996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}