ODION IGHALO: I WON’T STOP PLAYING UNTIL …

After swapping the red colours of Changchun Yatai FC for the blue colours of Shanghai Greenland Shenhua FC, Nigeria international striker Odion Ighalo still reiterates his commitment to earn another successful session as the 2019 Chinese Super League season gets underway, reports MORAKINYO ABODUNRIN.

NIGERIA international Odion Ighalo, the burly striker, has yet again opened up on the secrets of his long successful career, even as he set his sight on yet another goal scoring season with his new Chinese Super League (CSL) side, Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club, otherwise known as SH Shenhua.

Inclusive of his academy years at Prime FC in Lagos, Ighalo is almost clocking two decades on the playing turf in a career that has seen him play for seven other clubs including defunct Julius Berger of Lagos on his way to a professional career in Europe.

After just a season with Lyn Oslo in the Norwegian Tippeligaen, Ighalo was recruited by Italian side Udinese from where he was farmed out on loan to several clubs that included Granada (Spain), Cesena (Italy) and Watford where he impressed so well to be prised away on full contract.

It was at Watford that Ighalo showed his unbridled goal scoring ability where he recorded 39 goals in about 100 appearances including an impressive 25 goals in 35 matches in the 2014/2015 that in no small way catapulted the club from the English Championship to the klieg-light of the English Premier League (EPL).

But just after two seasons in the top flight with the Hornets, Ighalo was involved in a shock transfer to the CSL on a five-year deal with Changchun Yatai FC for a reported £27 million transfer fee.

Ighalo, who will mark his 30th anniversary in June, has netted an impressive 36 goals in a cumulative 55 matches in the CSL; but his lion-hearted performance last season when he scored 21 goals in 28 league matches could still not rescue Changchun Yatai from relegation much to the displeasure of the ever-smiling Number 9 shirt-wearing striker.

“Yes, I had good time with Changchun Yatai, but it was very sad to go on relegation after all the fight and goals but that’s football for you,” Ighalo who randomly captained Changchun Yatai told The Nation in a lively conversation days before his winning debut with SH Shenhua in the club’s 3-0 thrashing of Dalian Yifang in their last pre-season friendly match. “My best memories with Changchun Yatai were the goals and the worst memory was the relegation.”

It is as though Ighalo, who broke through humbling circumstance, has mastered the secrets of success so much so he routinely put this as status on his social media account: ‘Do you know why I would always win? I wish you what I wish myself.”

In all ramifications, Ighalo can be described as an authentic Nigerian success story and just last December, he was ‘Loud in Lagos’ after opening his eye-popping architectural masterpiece in the nouveau riche Lekki suburb.

Yet for all his fortune and fame, he’s still rooted to his humble ideals even as he offered recipes for success that can be followed by aspiring young footballers: “My motto is work hard and pray; be humble and always ready to learn. And no matter what you have achieved, don’t get carried away and still believe you are still learning.”

Incidentally, the inspiring  lines  of ‘even when I lose, I’m winning’  that characterised John Legend’s  All Of Me hit-track re-echoed so well in Ighalo’s trajectory  from the streets of  Lagos to  Europe en route to the far East of Asia .

On the last count, Ighalo is reportedly worth about 40 million Euros on the transfer market, based on the basic amount of money accumulated from his inter-club transfers over the years; and the calculation is outside weekly wages and other personal emoluments including allowances and endorsements with Nike and several other blue-chip companies in the period under review between 2007 and 2019.

In the annual salary review of African top earners, Ighalo, who reportedly was on  £190,000 weekly wages during his  two-season spell at Changchun Yatai, was slightly placed in third position  behind Ghana’ s Asamoah Gyan and African Footballer of the Year Mohammed Salah with a respective weekly wages of £300,000 and £250,000.

But his response was instructive when pressed about what extra motivation he harbours despite his new found reputation: “Because I still believe there’s more out there to achieve and I won’t stop (playing) until I’m satisfied.”

But for a fact, there is still much ground for Ighalo to cover in his career both at club and international levels for obvious reasons.

Despite his impressive personal goal-scoring credentials which was totalled at 121 goals in 303 appearances between his days at Lyn Oslo and Changchun Yatai; as well as individual awards including being named as the Premier League Player of the month in December 2015 at Watford, Ighalo is yet to win a major club prize – besides helping Watford to gain promotion to the EPL in the 214/2015 season.

Though the 2015 season also coincided with his international debut for the Super Eagles in the 1-0 home loss to Uganda in an international friendly under the then interim coach Daniel Amokachi, he has yet to grab a diadem with the national team.

Already, he has won a total of 23 caps and scored 10 goals including a remarkable five goals in the back-to-back 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Libya (in Uyo and Sfax) last October.

So what would be a most successful 2019 for Odion Ighalo?

“Winning the Africa Cup of Nations and doing well with my new team here in China,” noted Ighalo.

Following his movement to SH Shenhua, Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr, who has described Ighalo as one of ‘my most important strikers for the AFCON’, told our correspondent that the striker has the ability to excel  with his new club.

“When Odion announced to me his transfer, I was very happy,” Rohr told our correspondent in a separate interview. “He (Ighalo) will find there (at Shanghai Grenland Shenhua) his former coach from Watford (Quique Sánchez Flores) in a big club.”

Last season, Ighalo finished as the CSL second top scorer with 21 goals and overlooked interests from few EPL sides and FC Barcelona to pledge his immediate future with SH Shenhua.

His addition is regarded to the squad is seen as a major boost to the club after the departure of Demba Ba and his Nigerian compatriot, striker Obafemi Martins, who he reckoned facilitated his transfer to SH Shenhua.

“Swapping the red colours of CC Yatai for the blue colours of SH Shenhua means another challenge and new chapter in my career,” Ighalo further explained.  “It’s (SH Shenhua) a big club with history and my former coach at Watford (Flores) shows that he really wants me.

“Yes, I had lots of interest in Europe but it was difficult because of my buyout clause but hopefully before the end of my career it (playing in Europe) might happen.”

Incidentally, SH, according to Forbes, are the 6th most valuable football team in China with a team value of about $106 million and estimated revenue of about $29 million in 2015.

The CSL side has a rich pedigree having featured great names like former African Footballer of the Year, Didier Drogba, and French journeyman Nicholas Anelka and it only came under the Greenland Holding Group in 2014.

SH Shenhua are yet to win any major prize since their success in Chinese FA Cup in 2017 while they came seventh in the CSL last year; but Ighalo is earnestly looking at the prospect of a great flourish at ‘the Flower of Shanghai’ (as SH Shenhua is also known), adding that the club would help recharge his energy for the challenges ahead of him in the Super Eagles.

“It’s (being a key to Super Eagles success in the upcoming AFCON in Egypt) no pressure because it’s a football tournament not a war zone; when we get to that bridge we will cross it,” Ighalo offered with his imitable frankness.

 ODION IGHALO:11 KEY CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Born in Lagos, Ighalo who played for local side, The Olodi Warriors, started his career with Prime F.C. and later moved to defunct Julius Berger where he was reportedly discovered by FIFA agent Marcelo Houseman and Atta Aneke who facilitated his trials with Lyn Oslo.

 He made his Tippeligaen debut on 16th 2007 at the age of 18, scoring in a 2–0 home win against Viking FK. He netted six goals in 13 games in his second year to help his team to the seventh position, and subsequently attracted interest from other clubs in the country.

 But on 30th July 2008, Ighalo signed for Udinese Calcio in Italy, moving alongside teammate Jo Inge Berget and agreeing to a five-year contract.

 Ighalo was loaned to Granada CF in the summer of 2009 as part of the partnership agreement between Udinese and the Spaniards. He scored 17 times in his first year (including seven play-offs matches) and five goals in the second year; this was interspersed with a brief loan stint back in Italy with A.C. Cesena.

 Though still owned by the Udine side, Ighalo continued playing with Granada in the following years. He played his first La Liga match on 27th August 2011, starting and playing the full 90 minutes in a 1-0 home loss to Real Betis.

 He joined Watford on a season-long loan deal from Udinese on 29th July 2014, making his debut for the English in the first round of the Football League Cup at Stevenage on 12th August and scored his first goal against Brentford on 30th September by tucking the ball home after his initial penalty was saved by David Button.

 Watford terminated Ighalo’s loan deal on 24th October 2014 but re-signed him on a permanent deal the same day after Udinese released him from his contract.

 Exactly three months later, he scored four second half goals and was voted Man of the Match in a 7–2 home routing of Blackpool, who lead 0–2 at half time and took his league tally to 14 on 10th February 2015, after netting a brace to help his team come from behind at Brentford to win 2–1.

 On 20th December 2015, Ighalo scored in a Watford victory for the fourth consecutive time, netting a brace in a 3–0 win over Liverpool. His five-goal haul earned him the Premier League Player of the Month of December 2015 while his manager Quique Sánchez Flores won the equivalent award.

 On 12th August 2016, he signed a new five-year contract with Watford but five months after, Ighalo joined Chinese Super League club Changchun Yatai F.C. on 31st January 2017 for a reported £20 million transfer fee.

 On 14th February 2019, Ighalo transferred to fellow CSL side, Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club after Changchun Yatai were relegated to the second tier.