Who would have thought that a kid born and raised in Lagos ghetto Ajegunle, would one day become one of Africa’s biggest footballers globally?
Well, that’s the case of Odion Ighalo, one of Nigeria’s most successful footballers of the last decade.
The striker currently features for Saudi Arabian giants and Asia’s most decorated club Al Hilal after a career in Europe that saw him playing topflight football for clubs in Norway, Italy, Spain and England, as well as China.
For the 33-year-old, it’s been a tortuous journey to the pinnacle of global football, a grass-to-grace story of sheer determination, hard work and the desire to succeed, which has earned him his latest trophy, the King’s Cup in the oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
Born to a baker dad, Paul, and a petty trader mum, M.S. Ighalo, rising from the slums of Lagos to becoming a recipient of the King’s Cup gold medal in Saudi Arabia wasn’t ever going to be an easy task.
Surviving in poverty-stricken Ajegunle, where life of crime and drugs reigned supreme among youths, was always going to be a grueling task, no doubt.
The footballer admits a close shave with death in his neigbourhood, while playing for his first club Olodi Warriors at the famed ‘Maracana Stadium.’
“We had bad gangs going into the ghetto, taking marijuana and all that. I remember when we were training some people who stole would have to cross through the field and police were shooting guns,” Ighalo told CNN.
“We had to run and bend down because a stray bullet can hit anybody. I was young then — I was so afraid that day.”
After Olodi Warriors, he had stints at Prime FC of Osogbo and the defunct Julius Berger on the domestic scene, before a move abroad to Norwegian side Lyn Oslo in 2007.
Ighalo scored nine league goals in 20 games in just one season in the Scandinavian country, but his impressive statistics caught the eye of scouts of Italian Serie A side Udinese in 2008.
But settling down to life in Italy’s tough topflight didn’t come easy, as he managed just six league games and one goal in the 2008/09 season.
He was shipped off on loan deals to sister clubs Granada (twice) and Watford (once), as well as Cesena for the next four seasons.
The loan move to Watford in the Championship — in the 2014/15 season — turned out to be the right decision, as Ighalo’s career found its way back to the right path.
-Punch
