 Ighalo with Watford in 2016 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Odion Jude Ighalo[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 16 June 1989[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Lagos, Nigeria | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)[3] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Al-Wehda | ||||||||||||||||
| Number | 9 | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2000–2005 | Prime | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 2005 | Prime | 5 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2006 | Julius Berger | 10 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | Lyn | 20 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 2008–2014 | Udinese | 6 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2009–2010 | → Granada (loan) | 26 | (16) | ||||||||||||||
| 2010–2011 | → Cesena (loan) | 3 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2011–2014 | → Granada (loan) | 95 | (16) | ||||||||||||||
| 2014 | → Watford (loan) | 8 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2014–2017 | Watford | 82 | (34) | ||||||||||||||
| 2017–2018 | Changchun Yatai | 55 | (36) | ||||||||||||||
| 2019–2021 | Shanghai Shenhua | 17 | (10) | ||||||||||||||
| 2020–2021 | → Manchester United (loan) | 12 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2021–2022 | Al-Shabab | 31 | (21) | ||||||||||||||
| 2022–2023 | Al-Hilal | 40 | (31) | ||||||||||||||
| 2023– | Al-Wehda | 38 | (17) | ||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | |||||||||||||||||
| 2009 | Nigeria U20 | 3 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2015– | Nigeria | 37 | (16) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 19 October 2024 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 29 March 2022 | |||||||||||||||||
Odion Jude Ighalo (born 16 June 1989) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Saudi Pro League club Al-Wehda. Regarded as one of the best strikers in Africa, he is a creative forward known for his technical skills, dribbling, vision and versatility on the pitch.
After starting his career at Nigerian clubs Prime and Julius Berger, Ighalo moved to Norwegian club Lyn in 2007. A year later, he was signed by Italian club Udinese, spending most of his tenure on two separate loan spells with Spanish club Granada. In 2014, he signed for Championship club Watford and was integral in the club's promotion to the Premier League in the 2014–15 season. In January 2017, Ighalo joined Chinese Super League club Changchun Yatai for a reported £20 million, before moving onto Shanghai Shenhua. In January 2020, Ighalo returned to the Premier League, joining Manchester United on loan, initially until the end of the 2019–20 season; the loan was then extended until January 2021.
Ighalo made his debut for the Nigeria national team in March 2015 against Uganda. He represented the nation at the 2018 World Cup and was the highest goalscorer in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign. He eventually led Nigeria to a third-place finish at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, where he finished in the competition's Team of the Tournament and was crowned top scorer.[4]
- ^ "Odion Jude Ighalo" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Football Federation. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
- ^ "Odion Ighalo". ESPN. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
- ^ "Odion Ighalo: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
- ^ Ezekute, Nnamdi (19 July 2019). "Ighalo Emerges AFCON 2019 Top Scorer With Five Goals". Complete Sports. Retrieved 24 May 2020.