Sports
Ighalo, Living His Dream At Man Utd
As a young boy growing up in Nigeria, Odion Ighalo had to save up his lunch money in order to watch his beloved Manchester United on TV at the weekend.
Now 30, he is a United player, having signed for his boyhood club on loan until the end of the season from Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua in January.
Since then, Ighalo has scored three goals in eight appearances for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, and enjoyed his first Manchester derby victory on Sunday.
In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC, he discusses growing up as a united fan, the panic to make his move from China possible and the impact team-mate Bruno Fernandes can have.
When I was growing up, I knew a lot about football because I saw some of my grown-up siblings watching football on TV and they supported Manchester United.
Sometimes you would listen to commentary on the radio. Sometimes you would go out to watch at the viewing centre because some of us didn’t have the opportunity to subscribe or pay to watch.
During the week, you had to save every day from Monday to Friday to be able to do that, so I’m happy I did that because my life was all about football. I played football and I watched my team and it was one of those things I cherished every weekend.
You’d get ready, wash your jersey and go out and support your darling team. You had to save for it because without, you can’t watch.
Sometimes you would just go there and see, if you were lucky, if someone would pay for you or sneak you in, but sometimes it wasn’t possible. Sometimes you would just hear if they scored – when they shouted “goal” when Man Utd scored – and you would wait outside until the game finished, you got the result of the game and then you would go home happy.
To be the first Nigerian to play for Manchester United is a great achievement for me which I am going to cherish for the rest of my life because it’s not easy to dream something and it comes true. It’s a great feeling.
I never believed it was going to happen because the time difference from China to the UK is crazy and with the coronavirus that is going on in China.
But dreams do come true. I prayed about it and it happened. When my agent told me about it I was hoping and longing, but I was having doubts in my mind because I was in China. How was I going to fly to the UK? Am I going to beat this coronavirus to get in and united have another striker they are looking at?
I was happy my name was being mentioned but I did not put my mind on it 100% because I thought it was not going to happen because of the situation in China.
When my agent called me and told me Manchester United wanted to do this deal I said “are you serious?” and “how am I going to speak to the director because he doesn’t speak English?”.
I had to go to the translator and bang on his door. He had to go to the director to talk. I was talking to the translator and he was translating to the director, there were three-way calls with my agent and Man Utd were talking too. I didn’t get to sleep until 6am.
It still feels like a dream sometimes. But I don’t want to get carried away with too much emotion so that I am able to concentrate on training well and playing well. I know I am playing for the biggest club in the world.
Before the game, we knew it was going to be tough because we were playing against a good side, but we are United. We are capable of beating any team if we play to our standard and play very well, which we did.
You could see everyone was buzzing from the first minute. Everybody from the first minute to the last minute gave everything they had, even those who came on from the bench.
This form can be sustainable because it’s hard work, belief and determination. The group are together working towards one goal.
I’m not saying we’re not going to lose games – sometimes we will. But we are sticking together, fighting together, and our belief is there. I think we have what it takes to do even better than we are doing now.
Ighalo and Bruno Fernandes both signed for United on transfer deadline day in January
It’s not my first time playing with Bruno. I played with him at Udinese back in 2010.
He’s a great player. He has vision. He’s the guy who wants the ball because he can do something fantastic with it if you give him space. He’s a good passer of the ball and he’s what this team needs to score goals.
You’re still going to see more and better from him because he is still getting used to the Premier League. When he’s finally settled Bruno Fernandes is going to do well in this team.
Before I came here I knew Manchester United were looking at him and I was hoping they would get him because he is a good player and I knew he was going to change the dynamic of the team.
He’s not going to have the best game every time but what he is going to bring to the team is going to be unbelievable.
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Rivers State Chapter has set up five standing working committees on Tuesday, in its general congress.
At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.
Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.
Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”
Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.
“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.
“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”
“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.
“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”
To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.
The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.
He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.
“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.
“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”
In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.
The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.
According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.
The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.
NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.
“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.
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