New arrival at Watford of England, Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure has revealed that The Hornets’ former Nigerian star, Odion Jude Ighalo inspired him to join the English Premier League returnees, megasportsarena.com reports.
While also revealing that he once played against Ighalo in the UEFA Europa League and spoke cordially with him afterwards, the former Club Brugge of Belgium and FC Cologne of Germany ace stressed that he has admired the former Super Eagles star all along.
Bonaventure went on to reveal how Ighalo spoke to him at length when he called him up about his move to Watford, with the 20019 Africa Cup of Nations top scorer encouraged him to seek the Golden Fleece at Vicarage Road.
The attacker-cum-winger, who put pen on a five-year deal with Ighalo’s former club, has already started training with his new teammates, among who are the Nigerian trio of William Troost-Ekong, Isaac Success and Tom Dele-Bashiru.
The deal comes less than a year after a proposed move to West Bromwich Albion fell through for Bonaventure, but he now has the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Ighalo, who hit home 39 goals in 100 appearances for Watford, before moving to Changchun Yatai of China in 2017.
Bonaventure disclosed: “I played against him in the Europa League so I met him after the game, we spoke together. He’s an inspiration.
“I’m a big fan of him. I watched him play here and score a lot of goals. He scored a lot of goals for Nigeria so I’m very happy I became his friend.
“I spoke to him when I was here too, (and) he said: ‘I’m happy you’re here, you’re going to love it. The people are nice. Just play football, you’re going to enjoy yourself.’ He’s like a big brother.”
