I hope someday, Jude Odion Ighalo will talk about his journey fully.
There’s no time I think about his career and not credit his incredible resilience. To spend those number of years in football, and only enjoying proper, proper big bucks towards the end says a lot about footballers from our part of the world. It’s not easy to do.
A career that has spanned over 20 years is no mean feat for anyone, especially an African footballer. And he spent majority of it in Europe, in top division teams.
Another player whose journey I respect is Brown Ideye.
Ideye was in the U-20 two years before Ighalo, and was a star in that team. Probably the most successful member of that team alongside Ambrose Efe and Elderson Echiejile.
He played at in Switzerland, France, then Dynamo Kiev. That West Brom move was their record transfer at the time and then Greece. A player who was good enough to consistently stay in top division European clubs. You may look at those things from afar and think they’re easy but those in the game know they’re not. Very difficult.
Those players also started locally. Ideye played for Ocean Boys. Ighalo played for Prime FC and Julius Berger, but times are changing.
The brightest journeyman we’ve had in the last 10 years must be Victor Osimhen. He’s played in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Turkey. He’s Nigeria’s biggest player of the last 20 years and he didn’t play in the local league. He also never got a chance to play U-20 like Ideye or Ighalo but he’s proven himself good enough at U-17.
Before Osimhen, there was Kelechi Iheanacho. There was Taiwo Awoniyi. There was Isaac Success whose path was similar to Ighalo’s — he played for Udinese, Watford and Granada too, but football is hard, you can’t switch off. You’ll go through big journeys. The game will test you. If you’re resilient, you’ll come out shining.
You simply can’t think the people who earn their stars were lucky. They worked hard. Some of them faced life-threatening situations — Osimhen and Awoniyi, and they carry scars that will break many people.
This is just to respect them, and tell that they’re big, big characters. Success is not easy.