Odion Ighalo speaks on the sacrifice he made to join Manchester United

Nigeria and Al-Wehda striker, Jude Odion Ighalo, revealed that he made financial compromises to join Manchester United on loan in 2020, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 35-year-old fulfilled a life-long dream of playing at the Theatre of Dreams just before the global pandemic hit. Marcus Rashford had suffered a back-stress fracture which meant he’d be out for a long period, and the then-United coach, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was in the transfer market for a short-term fix.

Ighalo, who was at Shanghai Shenhua at the time, got a call from his agent that United were interested in his services.

“At 11 pm in Shanghai, my agent called me [to say] that United wanted to do the deal, so I woke up and started looking for a translator to go to the directors’ room and hit his door. So, they started talking and discussing. I didn’t sleep throughout that night, because it was going to end at 7 am, Shanghai time, and the transfer [window] was going to close there,” the 2019 AFCON Golden Boot winner said in quotes revealed by Manchester Evening News.

While time was running out for the transfer, Ighalo was keen on moving to Old Trafford and revealed he had to cut his wages to join his dream club.

“From 11 pm there was paperwork, negotiating and all that, for the loan deal, so we are talking and other teams are calling them, wanting me, but I told my agent that this is what I want. I want to come here. He said: ‘You’re going to get a pay cut to go to United.’ I said: ‘I don’t care. Make this deal happen. I want to go to United. I don’t care how much the pay cut is,” Ighalo added.

Ighalo’s loan spell ended with five goals in 761 minutes of football for Manchester United. Since then, he’s featured for three Saudi Arabian clubs – Al Shabab, Al Hilal, and Al Wehda.