{"id":28623,"date":"2020-08-12T17:13:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T17:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=28623"},"modified":"2020-08-12T17:13:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T17:13:39","slug":"the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo","title":{"rendered":"The rise of Odion Jude Ighalo"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his first interview after completing his shock deadline day move to Manchester United in January, Odion Ighalo told the club\u2019s official magazine about his love for the club as a kid playing soccer in the dusty grounds of Nigeria and how he paid extra to own the blue jersey with the names of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole imprinted on them. He also told the magazine about watching the matches on TV with his siblings and supporting the Red Devils.<\/p>\n

This story of the rise of this player from Nigeria to Manchester United touched the string chords of the Footballing world and the Manchester Fans alike. Though Newer fans of this enigmatic club are left to wonder about the impact of the Striker on the teams he has played till now and the impact he will have on Manchester United\u2019s season now.<\/p>\n

Starting his career with Julius Berger in Nigeria, Ighalo was discovered by a Fifa agent who recommended him to a club in Norway. Ighalo made his debut in the Tippeligaen and subsequently moved to Udinese and then Granada in his fledging footballing career. It was at Granada that the Nigerian got his taste of regular first-team football and helped the Andalusia side get back to back promotion with his stint in the team.<\/p>\n

Ighalo found his fame at Watford, where he helped the English side earn promotion to the Premier League and formed a lethal partnership with Club captain Troy Deeney to help Watford to a 13th place finish in the table, scoring 16 EPL goals in the process and bagging a POTM award for his efforts.<\/p>\n

It was then that the rumours began linking him to the Red Devils with the pundit\u2019s debating over whether he would fit into Van Gaal\u2019s style of football at the Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

A surprise stint in China followed after that, With Ighalo playing for 2 different clubs, but soon a January deadline day loan deal allowed him to finally achieve his dream of playing in the Theatre of Dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his first interview after completing his shock deadline day move to Manchester United in January, Odion Ighalo told the club\u2019s official magazine about his love for the club as a kid playing soccer in the dusty grounds of Nigeria and how he paid extra to own the blue jersey with the names of Dwight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":10237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[174,115],"class_list":["post-28623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-football-in-nigeria","tag-nigerian-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nThe rise of Odion Jude Ighalo - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In his first interview after completing his shock deadline day move to Manchester United in January, Odion Ighalo told the club\u2019s official magazine\" \/>\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\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The rise of Odion Jude Ighalo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his first interview after completing his shock deadline day move to Manchester United in January, Odion Ighalo told the club\u2019s official magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-12T17:13:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/2019\/05\/odion-ighalo-nigeria-vs-argentina_976t3wtcbtda19il71v8ephh9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\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\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"The rise of Odion Jude Ighalo\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-12T17:13:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/2019\/05\/odion-ighalo-nigeria-vs-argentina_976t3wtcbtda19il71v8ephh9.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Football in Nigeria\",\"Nigerian sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/the-rise-of-odion-jude-ighalo\",\"name\":\"The rise of Odion Jude Ighalo - 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