Odion Ighalo Sings Praise Songs, Guns For More Blessings From God

Shanghai Shenhua of China striker, Odion Jude Ighalo is again counting the long line of blessings he has gained from God, but confessed that he is still angling for a lot more to come his way, on and off the pitch, megasportsarena.com reports.

Despite calling it quit with the national team right after this year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, where he emerged top goals scorer with five goals, Ighalo continues hogging headlines in China and reeling in the cash with the club he joined last year.

He made the move to Shanghai after his first club in The Oriental Nation, Changchun Yatai were relegated from the Chinese Super League, but the former Super Eagles’ star says he has nothing to regret and remains ever grateful to God for providing all he needs for self and family.

This is in spite of earlier reports that he actually snubbed an offer from FC Barcelona of Spain in preference for the move to Shenhua, which ended up seeing him earn almost double the wages of £190,000-a-week he got at Yatai, thereby keeping him in the top-bracket of Nigeria’s highest earning players abroad.

He signed a three-year contract with the 2017 Chinese FA Cup winners and looks set to get an extension, as Shenhua faithful keep dotting him, despite the exit of the coach, Sanchez Flores, who also handled him in their days together at Watford, then took him to Shanghai in the off-season, only to rejoin The Hornets two months ago.

Dramatically, though, the former Julius Berger FC of Lagos, Prime FC of Osogbo, Lyn Oslo of Norway, Udinese of Italy and Granada of Spain hitman admitted he actually wanted to stay in the English Premier League, instead of making the move to China in the first place.

At that point, he drew interest from West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace, but recalls how they were both blown out by Yatai’s financial power and willingness to spend, as they splashed £20m on his transfer from Watford and inserted an eye-watering £10m annual salary.

Ighalo first joined Watford on loan from Granada in July 2014, then signed a permanent deal three months later, after which he went on to score 39 goals in 100 appearances during that time, including 20 he netted as Watford secured promotion to the Premier League in 2014/15.

He scored 17 goals in Watford’s first season back in the Premier League but his form nose-dive in the current season, netting just once in the Premier League.

In the summer of 2016, Ighalo turned down a move to Shanghai SIPD, who had a £37.5m offer accepted by Watford, where he eventually spent only two half years with the Hornets signed his new deal with Changchun Yatai in London with his agent Atta Aneke.

Early this year, Ighalo finally officially opened his charity home for motherless babies, which had been in the pipeline since 2017, as he decided to share some of God’s blessings in his life with the less privileged, and reportedly spent N500m to build the orphanage.

The home, which is based in Ijegun area of Lagos, has between 30 to 40 children, with separate apartments for boys and girls, with a strong pledge to look after them until they reach 18, ahead of which they will be groomed with moral teachings, academic studies and sports development.

Engraved on the orange walls of the orphanage is a molded depicting of Ighalo sliding on his knees and raising his arms to the sky, with a smile plastered to his face and an inscription ‘God is able’ boldly written underneath, which is his trade mark way of celebrating goals.

That same sense of piety has now inspired Ighalo to release another line of thanksgiving to God via social media, as he tweeted: “Grateful as ever for what I’ve got but still going after more.”