It’s rare in the football era nowadays where any footballer willing to take a pay cut, but Odion Ighalo feels he should do it just to join Premier League club Manchester United, leaving his current team Shanghai Shenhua on loan until the end of the season.
The 30-year-old Nigeria forward said his agent and the clubs spent the night negotiating and signing paperwork to get it through before the deadline at 7am Shanghai time.
“At 11pm in Shanghai, my agent called me that United want 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,” he said in a club website.
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“My agent wants to speak to you. United are coming for me, you have to make this happen.
“I told my agent ‘this is what I want. I want to come here.
But then his agent 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.’
Ighalo has been a United fan since he was a child and is pleased to be able to make his dream of playing for Red Devils a reality.
— Odion Jude Ighalo (@ighalojude) February 4, 2020
“I called my mum and she was happy, crying,” he said.
“I know many people used to say when they join a team, they say that they dream of playing for that team. Mine was not the case. I supported the team when I was young.
“People that know me, even back in Nigeria, and even when I was playing at Watford, my team-mates knew that I loved Manchester United, I support them.”
Ighalo will be a cover for Marcus Rashford who is recovering from a stress fracture.
He could make a debut against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Feb 18.