Ighalo moved from his Saudi Arabian club, Al Shabab, and signed for their local rivals Al Hilal in the last transfer window
By Kehinde Okeowo
Nigeria forward, Odion Ighalo, has revealed why he left his former club Al Shabab during the last transfer window to don the shirt of their Saudi Arabian rivals Al Hilal.
He made this known in a recent interview with ESPN, saying there was “bad blood” between him and the club after they stopped him from representing Nigeria at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
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Ighalo, who has since left Al Shabab and now playing for their Saudi Arabian rivals Al Hilal said:
“I was not happy with them and we decided to part ways because the Nations Cup that I didn’t go to caused a lot of bad blood.”
He went on to say Al Shabab was supposed to issue him an exit visa to allow him travel to Cameroon, but rather than do so, they began to foot drag.
“Four hours until my flight [to Cameroon], they had not sent me the exit visa. I called the team manager, and he told me they did not get an invitation. But I had a copy of the invitation that was sent because they copied me in the email.
“We had all this back and forth going on, I changed the ticket to the next day, and then the third day, and they still did not send me the visa. At that point, I knew they did not want me to go” Ighalo said.
The 32-year-old striker said he was unhappy with the fact that the club was not honest in dealing with him and he decided to leave them.
“My anger was that they should have told me straight up, not smiling in my face one day and then acting a different way. That is why I decided to leave,” he added.