Odion Ighalo joins new club

The transfer window may have closed across Europe, but it is still very active in China and some other parts of the world.

Following months of speculations in which Odion Ighalo was linked with several clubs including Barcelona, the Super Eagles striker has finally joined a new club.

Early Thursday morning, Chinese Super League club, Shanghai Shenhua, announced on their official twitter handle that they have signed Ighalo from another Chinese side Changchun Yatai.

Neither details of the financial implication nor the duration of the contract for Ighalo were specified in the tweet by Shanghai Shenhua.

Though Ighalo has moved to a ‘bigger’ club, he was believed to be desperate for a move away from China to mainstream Europe and a return to the Premier League where he has previously played for Watford FC was suggested.

That said, the move to Shenhua has seen Ighalo reunite with his former coach at Watford City, Sanchez Florez.

Ighalo no doubt is a proven goal scorer in the Chinese Super League having netted 36 goals in 55 games for Changchun Yatai who sadly could not beat the drop and have since been relegated from the CSL.

Ighalo started his professional career at Prime and Julius Berger. He moved to Norway’s Lyn in 2007.

A year later he was signed by Udinese, spending most of his tenure loaned out, notably at Granada, before signing for Watford in 2014.

Interestingly, another Nigerian, Obafemi Martins, was formerly with Shanghai Shenhua before running out his contract.