Former Manchester United striker Ighalo takes significant step towards career landmark

The former Watford ace helped his Saudi Arabian club make a massive march towards securing the league title

Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo is on the way to winning the first league title of his career after doing his bit to lift Al Hilal to a convincing 3-0 victory away to Al Fateh on Thursday evening.

A brace from Salem Al Dawsari and a late effort from Marega lifted the defending champions to a fine win inside the Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Sports City Stadium in Al-Hasa.

Ighalo featured for the first 70 minutes, but he could not add to his 22 league goals this term.

No one would, however, be happier than the former Manchester United loanee after seeing Al Hilal overtake fierce rivals Al Ittihad at the summit of the Saudi Arabia Pro League table. Both teams have 64 points, but Al Hilal boasts a +34 goal difference, one better than Al Ittihad’s +33.

Al Hilal had trailed Al Ittihad for much of the campaign, but a perfect run of five wins in their last five league games has pushed the defending champions to the brink of retaining the title.

Ighalo had been crucial to that remarkable surge, with the Nigerian forward netting three times in the five games.

Al Hilal will host Al Faisaly on Monday, June 27th, in the season finale, and the Asian Galacticos will win their 18th league honours should they better Al Ittihad’s result at home to Al-Batin on the same day.

It would be the first league title of Odion Ighalo’s career. Despite playing for some decent clubs in Spain, Italy, England, and China, the 33-year-old failed to get his hands on any.

Ighalo was with Al Shabab last season as the side finished runners-up to Al-Hilal in the title race. The former Granada man won the Chinese FA Cup with Shanghai Shenhua in 2019.