{"id":154303,"date":"2025-03-07T19:03:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T18:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo"},"modified":"2025-03-19T10:16:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:16:34","slug":"i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo","title":{"rendered":"I prayed that Man Utd\u2019s moves for two strikers collapse \u2013 Ighalo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo has admitted he prayed for Manchester United\u2019s pursuit of other strikers to fall through, before he eventually signed for the Premier League side.<\/p>\n<p>Ighalo, who is a lifelong United supporter, revealed this on the podcast of Super Falcons\u2019 attacker, Rasheedat Ajibade.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Al-Wehda striker, he was willing to accept a pay cut to fulfill his dream of representing the Red Devils.<\/p>\n<p>Ighalo said: \u201cIt was a dream when my agent called me that Manchester United wanted a striker on loan, because Marshal was injured and Rashford was injured.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said they had four options for strikers and you\u2019re the third option.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started praying against those other options, I prayed those options would not work, and that my opportunity to play for Manchester United must come to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In January 2020, Ighalo signed for United on loan until the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The move made him the first Nigerian player and the seventh African to join the club.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo has admitted he prayed for Manchester United\u2019s pursuit of other strikers to fall through, before he eventually signed for the Premier League side. Ighalo, who is a lifelong United supporter, revealed this on the podcast of Super Falcons\u2019 attacker, Rasheedat Ajibade. According to the Al-Wehda striker, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":154302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[1381,2072,254],"class_list":["post-154303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-ighalo","tag-manchester-united","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I prayed that Man Utd\u2019s moves for two strikers collapse \u2013 Ighalo - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo has admitted he prayed for Manchester United\u2019s pursuit of other strikers to fa ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I prayed that Man Utd\u2019s moves for two strikers collapse \u2013 Ighalo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo has admitted he prayed for Manchester United\u2019s pursuit of other strikers to fa ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-07T18:03:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-19T09:16:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741362027.972755.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"I prayed that Man Utd\u2019s moves for two strikers collapse \u2013 Ighalo\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-07T18:03:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-19T09:16:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo\"},\"wordCount\":192,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741362027.972755.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ighalo\",\"Manchester United\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/i-prayed-that-man-utds-moves-for-two-strikers-collapse-ighalo\",\"name\":\"I prayed that Man Utd\u2019s moves for two strikers collapse \u2013 Ighalo - 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