Victor Osimhen filled the boots — and then some — of Nicolas Pepe at Lille last season — ligue1.com breaks down the performances of Les Dogues' free-scoring African stars past and present.
Pepe was the most significant factor in Lille's surprise runners-up finish in 2018-19, while Osimhen's 13 goals in his first 27 top-flight matches in France made him the focal point of the 2019-20 squad that came in fourth, just a point outside the top three.
Pepe, who is now at Arsenal, played in all 38 games of the 2018-19 season, scoring his 22 goals at a rate of one every 151 minutes. Osimhen featured in all but one of Lille's 28 league matches last term, finding the back of the net every 176 minutes.
Scoring nine of the ten penalties he took helped boost Pepe's tally significantly — Osimhen scored two of his three spot-kicks — but it's the Nigerian who was the more prolific from open play: one goal every 208 minutes to Pepe's 1-in-256.
WATCH: Osimhen's debut double against Nantes
Both men scored predominantly with their preferred foot — Pepe's left, Osimhen's right — but the Ivorian is the more accurate shooter. Though they both averaged three shots a game, Pepe's were on target 64.2% of the time to Osimhen's 47.9%.
Given Osimhen is a central striker and Pepe a right-winger it's no surprise to find the latter man was more involved in playing, touching the ball 56 times a game to Osimhen's 28. Naturally, Pepe completed more passes in total than his successor — 31.6 to 12.7 per match — but he was also a lot more precise, completing 79% of his passes while Osimhen found his intended target 61% of the time.
