Ex-Super Eagles star, Odion Ighalo has revealed he feared his loan move to Manchester United wouldn't materialise because he was in China on transfer deadline day.
United signed the Nigerian on a loan deal from Shanghai Shenhua until the end of the season on January 31, with the paperwork all completed while the two parties were on opposite sides of the world.
Here’s what Ighalo said when he first learned of United's interest in him in an interview with Sky Sports ahead of the Manchester derby.
“I was in my bedroom in Shanghai in a hotel,” Ighalo said. “Two days before that I had some news about Man United. My agent called me and said Man United and all that but I was thinking, ‘Man United… I'm in China, it's the last day of the transfer window.'
“I called my agent, he said he hadn't heard anything, so I said, ‘well, I'm going to go to sleep, it's not going to happen.'
“Then my phone rang and my agent said, ‘United are coming for you. Where are you now?' I said ‘I'm in my bed, I'm about to go to sleep.' It was like 11pm there.
“I had a towel around my waist and got up, tied my towel, opened my door and went to the translator's room because the director doesn't speak English.
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“I said, ‘Man United want to speak to me.' I said, ‘it's Man United, make it happen. This is a dream for me.' Even my agent was shaking. I said, ‘you have to make this happen, I don't care what it's going to take. Just make it happen, I want to sign.'”
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 years ago