Manchester United undeniably haven’t been at their best playing state in the past few seasons, although their big impact on social networks surely hasn’t dwindled, and they’re finally on the mend again.
Man United presently are on a high and in good form playing flowing attacking football scoring good goals and conceding few.
Since the signing of Bruno Fernandes from the Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon, United found the missing link in midfield. He’s a breath of fresh air. A very talented and constructive player.
Also with Brazilian Fred and the Serbian Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay, the team now has a strong, reliable midfield.
The defence is really functioning well too. The two full backs – Luke Shaw on the left and Aaron Wan Bissaka – are considered the best in their position and the central defenders Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof, and now the fully fit Eric Bailly, are hard to beat. Keeper David De Gea on his day is, as usual, superb.
Up front, with the unfortunate news of Marcus Rashford’s devastating stress fracture during the FA Cup third round replay against Wolves on January 15, which will keep him off the pitch until near the end of the season, the management had to think fast for someone to fill his spot until he recuperates and is ready to get back on the pitch.
Odion Ighalo was the management’s solution to fill Rashford’s spot, and when the news on the transfer had landed, it made him the biggest trend on Twitter on the same day as Trump’s impeachment trial and Brexit.
The Nigerian striker, aged 30, is a strong powerful centre forward who was assigned on a year-long loan from his previous team: Shanghai Shenhua of the Chinese Super League.
He started his career in his home land and moved to Lyn of Norway in 2007. Then in 2014 he moved to Watford until 2017, when he moved to China with Yatai and later in 2019 moved to Shanghai Greenland.
In the January 2020 window his dream came to reality as he moved on loan to Man United, the team he supported since his childhood.
The main reason why this transfer went viral is the huge contrast between the usual transfers Man United sign, and their most recent one.
Ighalo was known as a decent player, but never shone like the world-class players who the team brought in previously.
The surprise is what made this player become world famous. It was so surprising because his only experience in the English league was with Watford, and he only scored six goals during his final season with them.
After being sent in as a substitute in three games, Ighalo started on his fourth match, due to Martial being unable to play, and this led to him going straight back to the top of the trending list for numerous reasons, one being he scored his first goal with the club in the match.
It was the Europa League last 32 round against Club Bruges, where they got an attractive 5-0 win. The experience Ighalo had gone through was indeed a very special one.
With Man United being his favourite team in the world since his childhood, hearing the fans chant his name while wearing the badge was his biggest dream. Everyone knows the big pressure anyone can feel playing in such a high ranked team, so being able to perform well and score in his first full game with them gave Ighalo the biggest boost his career had ever seen.
Your first goal with your dream club would certainly be an extremely emotional moment in your life. Ighalo took it up a notch to the next level.
For his goal celebration he decided to unveil a shirt under his kit, the shirt had a picture of his late sister, Mary Atole, who died suddenly at the age of 42, a few weeks before his transfer to his dream team.
His dedication of the goal to his sister shows how dear she was to him and shows the emotional strength Ighalo has: instead of letting it get him down, he said that he will dedicate every goal he scores to her, and that she will be watching him from above.
Ighalo’s performance gave the opposing defenders a tough match. Even though he had the smallest number of touches compared to the rest of the team, most of his touches made a good impact.
His impressive tactical playing style is definitely one to watch. According to Man Utd manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, also a former striker with over 120 goals to his name, Ighalo tends to sniff goals and always wants to be in the danger spots where he can cause damage.
His goal showed this when the ball was played wide to Juan Mata and Ighalo flew to the six yard line, where he received a beautiful cross from Mata and scored his first ever goal in a European competition.
The big impact this story had on the football community due to the ‘against all odds’ scenario, gives the football related betting industry a big boost in revenue, considering the more unpredictable things happening, the bigger the winnings are, and the number of people betting continues to rise.
The best UK Bookmakers sites are currently thriving, giving most players a very enjoyable experience, thanks to big surprises leading to big winnings, which increase interest in the sport and the activities that revolve around it.
Happy birthday to my Sweet Mum pic.twitter.com/AsNTNNQq4v
— Odion Jude Ighalo (@ighalojude) March 10, 2020
