Manchester United’s deadline day loan signing, Odion Jude Ighalo has opted to recall his days at Granada of Spain, where he donned jersey number 25 with the La Liga side, as he will now wear the same figure on the back of his shirt with The Red Devils, even as two of the club’s legends have voice their backing for his success with the team, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although numbers 7, 11, 19, 25, 27 and 30 are all available for him to pick up, ahead of his first game against Chelsea on February 17, the former Super Eagles star opted for 25, which had been left vacant with the departure of Antonio Valencia from Old Trafford last summer.
Ighalo has now been officially allocated number 25 kit for the duration of his season-long loan spell from Shanghai Shenhua of China at The Theatre of Dreams, with his expectations that he will make a bigger impact than he had the last time he donned the same figure, during the 2012/13 season at Granada, on loan from Udinese of Italy.
He becomes the ninth player to take the number and first since their former captain, Valencia’s exit from Old Trafford, following previous United’s previous jersey number 25 holders from Nick Powell (12/13), Danny Simpson (06/07 – 07/08), David Jones (06/07), Quinton Fortune (99/00 – 05/06), Jordi Cruyff (98/99), Kevin Pilkington (94/95 – 98/99) and Gary Walsh (90/91 – 93/94).
This development comes at a point two former stars of Manchester United, Mark Hughes and his namesake, Mark Bosnich declared their support for a successful spell at Old Trafford coming for Ighalo, as the ex-striker and erstwhile goalkeeper both approval The Red Devils’ new arrival.
Hughes, who was also captain of the side at a point during his heyday with the team, said he was excited seeing the signing of Ighalo, who has also previously played for Prime FC of Osogbo, Julius Berger FC of Lagos, Lyn Oslo of Norway and Changchun Yatai of China.
Hughes told Sky Sports: “He’s the type that United need, whether or not that’s a long-term view Ole has in terms of where he wants to take the team. I’ve watched them on a number of occasions and I always feel they lack that physicality at the top end of the pitch, just to relieve pressure.
“When United won at City and were getting pressed hard, they needed an outlet to knock it up to a big man who could retain possession and resist challenges. Without that physicality, sometimes you can’t get out.”
On his part, Bosnich acknowledged that Ighalo could prove to be a successful late arrival at Old Trafford, after the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations highest goals scorer sealed what has been widely described as a miraculous a last-gasp January Transfer Window Deadline Day loan deal.
In reaction to the move that takes Ighalo to United from Shenhua, ahead of two other touted options in Salomon Rondon and Josh King, Bosnich reckoned that the Nigerian striker has what it takes to revive memories of heroic days conjured in The Red Devils by Eric Cantona.
Bosnich said on Sky Sports News: “This was an emergency signing. I can understand a lot of people taking about a scatter gun approach, well it had to be with Marcus Rashford being out. The top four is still possible for Manchester United, they had to go and get somebody.
“The boy that’s come in has got nothing to lose, nobody expects anything unbelievable from him but they definitely needed somebody in that position. You never know. A long, long time ago Manchester United signed a certain Frenchman (Eric Cantona) who no one really expected much from and he ended up propelling them to one of their most successful seasons of all time.”
