- Former Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo has narrated how his mother cried when she heard that he has joined Manchester United.
Former Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo has narrated how his mother cried when she heard that he has joined Manchester United.
He gave the narration in an interview with MUTV.
He explained that he also had sleepless nights because of the transfer.
According to him, being the first Nigerian to play for Manchester United makes him emotional.
While giving an insight into how his transfer to Manchester United was concluded, he said, “Yeah, it was very dramatic. My agent called me the day before and said, ‘Man United.’ A few other clubs had shown interest, I said, ‘please, just pick United, if it’s going to be possible.’
“At 11pm in Shanghai, my agent called me that United wanted to do the deal, so I woke up that night and started looking for a translator to go to the directors’ room and hit his door and all that. ‘My agent wants to speak to you, United are coming for me, you have to make this happen’, and all that, you know. So, they started talking and discussing.
“I didn’t sleep throughout that night, because it was going to end at 7am, Shanghai time, and the transfer window was going to close there. So, from 11pm, there was paperwork, negotiating for the loan deal, and all that. So, we were talking and other teams were 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 is the pay-cut; I know that, make it happen. So the director and everybody didn’t know what to say anymore, because I had already made up my mind, so my agent started putting it in order, and, at 5am, we finished.
“My agent said he’d forwarded all the papers to United, they will confirm for me if everything is okay. I think, around 5am-6am, he said everything is okay, it’s done. I was excited. I called my mum and she was happy, crying and all that. This is your dream and all that and I’m happy for you. It was dramatic, I didn’t sleep through, I was very happy that finally, we got the deal done.”
Ighalo joined United on a six-month loan deal from Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua on Friday.
