In the hour of January 31, an explosive news spread quickly in Beijing time - Saudi Arabia's soccer star team Riyadh Crescent officially announced that they have successfully recruited former Shanghai Shenhua team foreign aid Ighalo, and the two people's contract is until June 2023 once signed.
Riyadh Crescent managed to "steal" Ighalo from city rivals Riyadh Youth by winning the transfer battle. Ighalo joined Riyadh Youth as a free agent after being released from his contract with Shanghai Shenhua in early 2021. He scored in his debut game and has contributed 22 goals to the team throughout the season.
Ighalo played 18 matches for Riyadh Youth in the recently concluded Saudi League, scoring 12 goals to lead the scorers' table. It was with such an outstanding performance that Riyadh Crescent went out of their way to poach the scorer from their city rivals.
Dating back to February 2017, Ighalo moved to the Chinese Super League for a fee of £20 million to join Changchun Yatai, a team where he had a career breakout in 2018, scoring 21 goals in the season, second only to Wu Lei, who scored 27 goals. However, Changchun Yatai was unfortunately relegated.At the beginning of 2019, Shenhua brought in Ighalo from Changchun Yatai on the recommendation of then Shanghai Shenhua head coach Flores. However, after joining Shenhua, Ighalo did not show too good performance. A year later, he was loaned to Manchester United, and when his loan contract expired in early 2021, Ighalo returned to Shenhua to finalize his contract with the team. (Source: DD)
