China Super League
ODION IGHALO: A CASE OF LOVE OVER MONEY; REJECTS SHANGHAI’S $131M CONTRACT
The Chinese Super League club of Odion Ighalo has offered the Nigerian striker a $131million contract. But he feels more at home with pay cut at Manchester United than taking the Chinese megabucks.
He has four more days to secure his Manchester United future as he seeks to choose his boyhood club over money again.
The 30-year-old’s loan deal expires on Sunday and he will have to return to Shanghai Shenhua, who have offered him a new 31/2-year contract worth over £75 million (S$131.2 million), unless there is a breakthrough in negotiations between the Chinese Super League (CSL) outfit and United.
The new deal would make him the eighth-highest paid footballer in the world – excluding endorsements. Yet the Nigeria striker wants to remain at Old Trafford after joining the club from Shanghai on a four-month loan in January.
According to The Times of London, United wish to keep Ighalo until the end of their season, but Shanghai want him back unless the English club fork out £20 million. United, fifth in the English Premier League, are however not keen on signing him permanently, although United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has reportedly not given up on a loan extension.
With the Red Devils still in the FA Cup and Europa League, Ighalo could feature in as many as 18 games in just over two months.
Should his dream stint – condensed into 25 days – come to an end, he will leave United with a blemish-free record.
He has never been on the losing side in eight appearances, contributing to six wins and two draws. He scored four goals in three starts. In the 356 minutes he was on the pitch, United netted 12 times and did not concede a single goal.
Few United fans would have predicted such an output from him when he took a pay cut to secure a move on deadline day.
United signed the former Watford striker to provide cover for Marcus Rashford, who had suffered a back injury a fortnight earlier, and paid a third of his £300,000 weekly wages.
But Rashford’s return means that Solskjaer will have a full complement of strikers to choose from should the Premier League restart next month, as Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood are also fit.
Ighalo returned for training with United last week, but his next competitive outing could be in the CSL.
The CSL season was supposed to begin on Feb 22 but has been postponed indefinitely and could restart in late June or early July.
Ighalo’s impact at United, however, extends beyond his contributions on the pitch. As clubs face the financial realities of the pandemic, he has proven that the club do not necessarily have to splurge on a striker when the transfer window reopens.
Solskjaer wants to bring in another striker then, with Lyon’s Moussa Dembele among his targets, reported The Times.
-Straits Times, Singapore
Paris St Germain manager Luis Enrique will hope to count on striker Ousmane Dembele for Sunday’s Club World Cup finale against Chelsea, after a stunning 4-0 thrashing over Real Madrid in the tournament’s penultimate stage.
The Ballon d’Or frontrunner rested the entire group stage after sustaining a thigh injury and was limited to substitute appearances in earlier knockout rounds, getting his first start of the tournament on Wednesday against the LaLiga titans.
He made an immediate impact, aiding Fabian Ruiz in the opening goal in the sixth minute before sending one into the net three minutes later at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Luis Enrique previously told reporters that he believed Dembele is deserving of the Ballon d’Or, and on Wednesday said there was no doubt that the Frenchman had once again shown himself worthy of soccer’s top individual honour.
“I’d like to highlight that this is the first game that I had my best player, Dembele, at his best,” he told reporters. “We’d seen him very little throughout this tournament, this is a critical player, a unique player, a player that every fan wants to see… hopefully we can have him for the final.”
The trophy on Sunday against Chelsea would mark a glittering end to a terrific season, as Luis Enrique steered the team to the continental treble, with a 5-0 defeat of Milan in the Champions League final in his second year with the team.
“We are one game away to not just make history but to build to history of Paris, of a French club that might get every cup, every tournament,” Luis Enrique told reporters. “This is very significant for us, for our fans.”
The Club World Cup final is set for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT).
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Chinese authorities have banned footballers from getting tattoos and instructed national team players who have been inked to remove or cover them up to set a “good example for society”.
A growing number of high-profile Chinese players have been sporting tattoos, including international defender Zhang Linpeng, who has previously been told to cover up while appearing for both the national team and club side Guangzhou FC.
The General Administration of Sport of China (GAS) said in a statement headed, “Suggestions for strengthening the management of football players” that the Chinese Football Association would set out disciplinary requirements for national team players.
“National teams at all levels will strictly implement the relevant requirements of the management measures … (and) fully demonstrate the positive spirit of Chinese football players and set a good example for society,” it said.
It also said that for teams at Under 20 level and below the recruitment of players with tattoos was “strictly prohibited”.
The GAS added that national teams should organise “ideological and political education activities” that would “strengthen the patriotic education” of players.
Doing so would “enhance the sense of mission, responsibility and honour, and create a national team capable of conquering and fighting well and with excellent style of play”, it added.
China’s national team have failed to qualify for the World Cup finals since making their debut appearance in 2002 and look set to miss out on Qatar 2022.
-Reuters
Former Super Eagles’ hit man, Odion Ighalo is having his last days at his dream club, Manchester United as the extension granted by his Chinese club side, Shanghai Shenhua is nearing an end.
The extension lapses in January 2021. Even though Ighalo made instant impact when he initially joined the North England side, his influence has waned considerably to the extent that he had just nine minute of action in the current season of the Premier League.
Attention of Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is more on how to maximize the signing of Uruguayan striker, Edinson Cavani.
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