Jorg Schmadtke is set to become Liverpool's new sporting director this summer – but don't expect Victor Osimhen to be joining the Reds.
Schmadtke comes with a wealth of experience in the Bundesliga, with an impressive track record of signing players at low prices for his manager to get tunes from. Wout Weghorst will no doubt be cited in the coming weeks as one of his biggest successes: the Dutch striker was brought to Wolfsburg for peanuts before being shipped off to Burnley for a healthy profit.
There will be some, however, who point to another striker – perhaps the most in-demand in the world right now – with even Schmadtke expressing his regret over one deal…
Liverpool's new sporting director Jorg Schmadtke once sanctioned a move for Victor Osimhen… at a ridiculously low price
When Victor Osimhen joined Wolfsburg back in January 2017 from the Ultimate Strikers Academy in Lagos, Nigeria, hope was high that the teenage striker could show a little of what he had in youth football. This was a deal as part of a partnership with the Nigerian academy – and with Die Wolfe targeting Europe after an eighth-place finish – the future looked exciting.
It didn't quite work out that way. Wolfsburg battled relegation that season, only just remaining in the Bundesliga by the skin of their teeth, with Osimhen making just three starts, and appeared nine more times off the bench. The club overhauled the backroom and dugout as a result of their dreadful season – and in came sporting director, Jorg Schmadtke. He deemed scrapping for survival to be poor ground for a teenager to try to hit running – and so, Osimhen was offered out on loan.
Zulte Waregem and Club Brugge reportedly turned the striker down before Charleroi took up the offer. Belgian football seemed to suit Osimhen much better, as in 25 appearances, he netted 12 times. A decent return for a young striker.
But Wolfsburg would never see the fruits of the loan deal, since Charleroi had the option to sign Osimhen for €3.5m as part of the agreement. In fact, Charleroi would sign him but never play him again: they snatched the buyout option from the Germans and sold the player to Lille just a month later for a reported €12m, plus €3m in bonuses and add-ons.
The Bundesliga side had perhaps let a generational talent slip through the net.
In fairness, Schmadtke can't be blamed too much for moving Osimhen on
“It wasn’t a good move, in hindsight,” Schmadtke said during an interview with Kicker. “When I came, he was limping and running in circles. I was told that the strikers we had weren’t good enough. The most important lesson is that you have to be patient with some transfers.”
Let's not be too harsh to the new Reds director, here: patience was not something that Wolfsburg could have afforded at the time. The club were in danger of dropping out of the division and Schmadtke hadn't been the one to sign Osimhen – who hadn't scored the club – in the first place.
Osimhen struggled physically and with the language, with no compatriot in the squad to help him. When Hamburg beat Wolfsburg in a relegation clash in May of that season, No.18 Osimhen was heavily criticised for his lackadaisical closing down that resulted in the winning goal. There was an overwhelming feeling that he wasn't ready for the club. He felt it himself.
“When I arrived at Wolfsburg, everything was different compared to what I was used to,” he later told Sport1. “I thought, will I get through this? But if I had stayed in Nigeria, I wouldn’t have been given a chance like the one they gave me in Germany. It was my first time in Europe. I was only 18 but didn’t have the time to adapt.”
It's fair to say that a clean break was best for both parties – and while Schmadtke might look back with a tinge of regret at including that €3.5m clause in the deal for the Nigerian, it's not as if it came back to bite Wolfsburg, who went from strength to strength following their brush at the bottom to qualify for Champions League not long after.
Sometimes, a transfer just doesn't work out, after all.
