His full names are Odion Jude Ighalo. He was born on the 16th day of June 1989 in the ghetto area of Ajegunle, a rough neighbourhood of Nigeria’s Lagos state notorious for producing many musicians and ghetto kings.
Odion was born to his mother, Martina Ighalo (a former petty trader) and Father, Paul Ighalo.
Ighalo started from the slum and grew up in a poor family setting. In his words… “Back then in Ajegunle, it was difficult to live, difficult to eat and that is why I thank God. My parents didn’t always have what we wanted or needed, we had to struggle,” he told The Guardian.
While his father was mostly unemployed, his mother owned a petty shop where she sells drinks and provisions. Madam Ighalo used to carry her wares and rushed to hawk ‘pure water’ so that her son, Odion Ighalo can play football.
She’ll save some money to buy football boots for her son while his dad goes opposite to pays his transport money to go school. There was indeed, a clash.
As it is the case with many young lads growing up in Nigeria, Ighalo’s parents disagreed about their son’s desire to become a footballer. While his mum supported his quest while his dad wanted him to go to school and study because it was safer than being in the open field. Pa Paul Ighalo’s case was well built.
As a boy, Odion Ighalo and his football team-mates would hit the deck when they heard gunfire during training.
The bullets didn’t know the difference between the young footballers and the drug dealers selling their narcotics on a corner of the pitch, who the police were targeting. As reported, growing up in the Ajegunle ghetto, at the heart of Nigerian city Lagos, life can be like that. This was why his dad rejected him becoming a footballer.
As Ighalo puts it, …“My mum stood beside me and protected him from my dad who would spank him for leaving school to play football”
Odion grew up as a young footballer watching the likes of Kanu Nwankwo, Samson Siasia, Jay Jay Okocha, Samuel Eto’o, Andy Cole etc. They were his role models who inspired him to be a striker.
Back then, Odion Ighalo can use to travel locally to play football within his Ajegunle’s neighbourhood where he trains with other football players. In a bid to get out of poverty, Odion had to stop schooling to take football professionally. He ignored the consequences from his dad. Despite the poverty surrounding his circumstances, the onetime young and aspiring player was very determined to make it in his chosen career. He played sometimes on an empty stomach.
When Ighalo started on the streets of Lagos, he never anticipated playing in the English Premier League. He was determined to play football and make some money to fend for his family and take care of his caring mother. The talented amateur baller played on the same local pitch called “Maracana” in the Tolu community area of Ajegunle. It was the pitch where the likes of Emmanuel Amunike and Kanu Nwankwo played as amateurs. He started playing professionally with Prime FC and later moved to Julius Berger
He gives back to the society immensely. “I’m planning to open an orphanage in Lagos” Ighalo once said. “I don’t do these things because I want people to praise me. I’ve been doing them before I joined Watford – ever since God started blessing me I have been helping the kids, helping the widows.”
Also, according to Pastor Benjamin Igoh, founder of Nigeria’s Wazobia Widows Foundation, Ighalo has gotten an undying passion for the less privileged, particularly in Ajegunle, where the striker began his career before leaving for Europe, is the reason behind his form.
Ighalo is known to be a devout Christian, who also often dedicates part of his wages for Nigerian charitable organisations to help impoverished children, schools and widows below the poverty line. “My family are No.1 – every month I send money back home to them, but I also send donations to the less privileged because I come from poverty,” the striker told Mirror in 2015.
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