Will Osula has gone from a Sheffield United academy signing to a forward valued at £40 million, with Bayern Munich and Aston Villa now among the clubs interested in him. Newcastle United paid £15 million for the 22-year-old in 2024, but the latest figure underlines how sharply his stock has risen after his best season yet.
Osula came through in the EFL after joining Sheffield United’s academy in 2018 following a move from FC Copenhagen. He first made the senior squad on the final day of the 2020/21 campaign against Burnley, made his senior debut that season and finished with five substitute appearances. He was also in the squad for both play-off semi-final legs as Sheffield United lost on penalties to Nottingham Forest.
His next stop was Derby County on loan for the 2022/23 campaign, and he made an immediate impression by scoring a brace on his first start against Accrington Stanley. The move ended on a sour note, though, when he was sent off in his final appearance before being recalled, also against Accrington Stanley. That spell showed the same mix of promise and rough edges that has followed him through his young career.
Osula returned to Sheffield United for the 2023/24 season and made 21 Premier League appearances, nine of them starts, without scoring. That season made him a useful squad player, but it did not hint at the leap he has made since moving to Newcastle. This season has been the best of his career: he has been used mainly as a bench option, yet has scored seven goals in 33 appearances. For a player who has spent much of the campaign coming on rather than starting, that return has changed the market around him.
Reports last summer said he was close to a £30 million move to Eintracht Frankfurt, and even that figure now looks dated. The Daily Mail said he is being valued at £40 million, a number that has surprised both Sheffield United and Derby County given what Newcastle paid only last year. The gap between those sums tells the story of Osula’s rise better than any scouting report can: he is no longer the young striker with potential, but a 22-year-old whose output is beginning to match the attention around him.
The next question is not whether clubs have noticed him. They have. It is whether Newcastle decide his value is climbing faster than his role can keep pace, or whether they keep him as part of a squad built for deeper runs and bigger ambitions.
