Izuchukwu OkosiLigue 1 champions PSG suffered a defeat at the hands of Cerezo Osaka on Friday as the French heavyweights went down to the Japanese side 3-2 in their pre season friendly in the Asian country.
The French Ligue 1 champions were without Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, who stayed on the bench throughout.
Huge Ekitike gave PSG the lead inside 20 minutes before Jordy Croux equalised for the J-League side.
After the break Vitinha scored Les Parisiens’ second of the afternoon but two late goals from Sota Kitano and Shinji Kagawa saw Osaka win.
Ahead of the next season, the Paris billionaires will however not have two of their players in their ranks as they are heading to other clubs – not Mbappe and Neymar – although those two are not expected to be PSG players for too long.
The club later on Friday announced the departure of striker Mauro Icardi to Galatasaray on a permanent deal.
The Argentinian attacker enjoyed a spate of prolific seasons at Inter Milan before joining PSG on an initial loan deal in 2019, but he failed to hit the same heights at the Parc des Princes.
Icardi was subsequently loaned out to Galatasaray for the 2022-23 season and reignited his career in Turkey, scoring an impressive 22 goals and setting up seven more in 24 Super Lig matches.
Galatasaray were crowned Turkish champions thanks to Icardi’s efforts, and the 30-year-old has now ended his stint in Paris to join Okan Buruk’s side on a permanent basis.
Icardi leaves PSG after racking up 38 goals and 10 assists in 92 games over the past four years, having joined permanently in 2020 for a €50m (£42.9m) following his one-year loan spell.
PSG are also set to say goodbye to Marco Verratti this summer transfer window with Saudi Arabian club, Al Nassr, keen to have in a, midifeld trip along with Rubén Neves and Savio Milinkovic.
As a result, the capital club has to find a replacements as the next face of the position.
Paris based blog PSG Community reports on Friday that manager Luis Enrique has made recruiting Barcelona youngster, Pedri, a top priority to bolster their midfield options.
Furthermore, Pedri himself is intrigued by the prospect of linking up with Enrique again at PSG.
The potential move, however, comes with a significant financial aspect. PSG would have to activate a temporary clause in Pedri’s contract, reportedly set at €110 million.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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