{"id":21000,"date":"2020-02-06T15:35:56","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T15:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=21000"},"modified":"2020-02-06T15:35:56","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T15:35:56","slug":"zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe: &#8216;Ighalo&#8217;s Move Silences Doubters&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United&#8217;s signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping ground for faded stars.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old Super Eagles striker, who won the Golden Boot at the last AFCON finals in Egypt and featured in a pre-tournament friendly against the Warriors in Nigeria, was lured back into England by the Red Devils.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester United have been struggling for goals after the club&#8217;s main forward, Marcus Rashford, suffered a long-term back injury.<\/p>\n<p>This has forced the club&#8217;s technical team to go for Ighalo who once played for Watford in the Premiership.<\/p>\n<p>Mushekwi played against Ighalo during the 2018 Chinese Super League.<\/p>\n<p>The Zimbabwean forward finished as the fourth most prolific African striker that season with 15 goals, despite a delayed start to the campaign, in which he wasn&#8217;t favoured by Dalian Yifang coach.<\/p>\n<p>Mushekwi ended up among the top 10 players in the Golden Boot race that was won by Chinese international forward Wu Lei with 27 goals.<\/p>\n<p>Ighalo was second in that race with 21 goals, while Congolese forward Cedric Bakambu, who was then the most expensive African footballer in history, was fourth with 19 goals.<\/p>\n<p>This week Mushekwi, who is in Turkey on pre-season with his Chinese second-tier league side Zhejiang Greentown, said Ighalo&#8217;s move showed there was quality in the Chinese leagues contrary to the belief that the foreign players who go there would be on their way out of the game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People just talk but Ighalo is a very good player,&#8221; said Mushekwi. &#8220;We did play against each other. Players are moving, people just talk but the Chinese League is as big as most top leagues in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United&#8217;s signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping ground for faded stars. The 30-year-old Super Eagles striker, who won the Golden Boot at the last AFCON finals in Egypt and featured in a pre-tournament friendly against the Warriors in Nigeria, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":18777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[468,174],"class_list":["post-21000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-afcon","tag-football-in-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>Zimbabwe: &#039;Ighalo&#039;s Move Silences Doubters&#039; - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United&#039;s signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping\" \/>\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\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zimbabwe: &#039;Ighalo&#039;s Move Silences Doubters&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United&#039;s signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-06T15:35:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alico\" \/>\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\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"Zimbabwe: &#8216;Ighalo&#8217;s Move Silences Doubters&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-06T15:35:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters\"},\"wordCount\":289,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png\",\"keywords\":[\"AFCON\",\"Football in Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters\",\"name\":\"Zimbabwe: 'Ighalo's Move Silences Doubters' - Nigeria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-06T15:35:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"description\":\"Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United's signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png\",\"width\":270,\"height\":180},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Zimbabwe: &#8216;Ighalo&#8217;s Move Silences Doubters&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\",\"name\":\"alico\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/alico\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Zimbabwe: 'Ighalo's Move Silences Doubters' - Nigeria","description":"Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United's signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Zimbabwe: 'Ighalo's Move Silences Doubters'","og_description":"Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United's signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters","og_site_name":"Nigeria","article_published_time":"2020-02-06T15:35:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":270,"height":180,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"alico","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"alico","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters"},"author":{"name":"alico","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7"},"headline":"Zimbabwe: &#8216;Ighalo&#8217;s Move Silences Doubters&#8217;","datePublished":"2020-02-06T15:35:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters"},"wordCount":289,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png","keywords":["AFCON","Football in Nigeria"],"articleSection":["all news","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters","name":"Zimbabwe: 'Ighalo's Move Silences Doubters' - Nigeria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png","datePublished":"2020-02-06T15:35:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7"},"description":"Nyasha Mushekwi says Manchester United's signing of Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo, on loan, proves that club football in China is not a dumping","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/51548Ighalo-5.png","width":270,"height":180},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/zimbabwe-ighalos-move-silences-doubters#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Zimbabwe: &#8216;Ighalo&#8217;s Move Silences Doubters&#8217;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/","name":"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7","name":"alico","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/alico"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}