Former Super Eagles striker Odion Jude Ighalo has revealed the sacrifice he had to make to join English Premier League (EPL) club Manchester United.
The father of three kids who opened up in a recent chat with Manchester Evening News, said that he had to take a huge pay cut to secure a move to his dream club.
Ighalo said when his agent told him that Manchester United wanted to sign him, he could not sleep as he wanted the deal to be sealed before the transfer window closed.
He stated further that he learned that he was going to have a pay cut to join Manchester United and he did not care how low he was going to earn by joining the club.
“At 11 pm in Shanghai, my agent called me [to say] that United wanted to do the deal, so I woke up and started looking for a translator to go to the directors’ room and hit his door.
“So, they started talking and discussing. I didn’t sleep throughout that night, because it was going to end at 7 am, Shanghai time, and the transfer [window] was going to close there.
“From 11 pm there was paperwork, negotiating, and all that, for the loan deal, so we are talking and other teams are calling them, wanting me, but I told my agent that this is what I want.
“I want to come here. He 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 the pay cut is,” Ighalo added.
