Mercato: OL recruits “an alien”! The signature that changes everything (OFFICIAL)

It was expected, it is now official: Gift Orban will continue his career at Olympique Lyonnais. The Rhone club formalized this Thursday evening the signing of the young 21-year-old striker, from La Gantoise. This is the 4th winter reinforcement for Les Gones after Adryelson (Botafogo), Lucas Perri (Botafogo) and Malick Traoré (La Gantoise). The Nigerian striker has signed a contract which binds him to OL until 2028.

“ The amount of the transfer amounts to €12 million to which can be added a maximum of €8 million in bonuses as well as 20% profit-sharing on the added value of a possible transfer.we can read in an official press release published by the Rhone club.

“Born in 2002 in Nigeria, Gift Orban began his training in his country of origin before being spotted by the managers of Stabaeck in the summer of 2022, details the OL. After successful trials, he signed up for a period of 4 seasons with the Norwegian second division club, immediately making an impression by scoring 19 goals in 22 matches. Having become the championship’s top scorer, he was then transferred six months later to Gantoise, on the last day of the winter transfer window. In Belgium, Gift Orban maintains his impressive momentum from his first minutes. The 1.78m center forward has a string of goals, totaling 20 goals during his first 22 matches, including 4 against Basaksehir in the 1/8 finals of the Conference League. In the return match, concluded with a score of 4/1, he scored 3 goals in just three minutes, thus establishing the record for the fastest hat-trick in the history of UEFA club competitions. A significant performance allowing La Gantoise to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition against West Ham. »

“A very powerful player on his feet”

“With a total of 32 goals scored during 2023 and a remarkable ratio of 0.68 per match since his professional debut (51 goals in 75 matches), the 21-year-old striker is today considered to be the one of the young hopes of African football in his position. Olympique Lyonnais, faced with strong competition in carrying out this recruitment, is particularly pleased to have succeeded in signing Gift Orban, who thus becomes the first Nigerian player in the club’s history“, concludes OL.

By attracting this very promising prospect, Lyon will have an additional weapon in its maintenance mission. Guillaume Gautier, journalist for the site Le Vif, spoke highly of the player in After Foot. “ Over his first six months, Orban was truly on an alien. He was on fire. He is a very powerful player on his supports, who can drive his opponent crazy. We thought he was going to be sold this summer, and he probably saw himself leaving. But that didn’t happen and he gradually found himself third striker in the La Gantoise hierarchy, in a team that plays with two forwards (with the Belgian Hugo Cuypers and the Moroccan Tarik Tissoudali). He lost confidence…“. It remains to be seen how quickly this talented striker will acclimatize to Ligue 1.