On a creaking telephone line from Lagos, Nigeria, Owolabi Oludare Peter pauses. Owolabi is Odion Ighalo’s lawyer and one of the trustees for the orphanage home founded by Manchester United’s new striker.



Owalabi says: “To understand Odion, we have to go back to our childhood together and you, and your readers, will need to use your imagination. Imagine the world you know, all of those comforts in England and the world you grew up in. Then, I want you to think of the opposite. Because, my brother, in our village; it was basically a ghetto in Ajegunle. We did not have amenities, lights or electricity. clean water was not a guarantee. There was a lot of poverty. The only similarity between then and now for Ighalo? He was donning a United jersey as a child and now he does the same in Manchester.”



As the clock ticked down on the final evening of the transfer window, Ighalo became the stop-gap solution to Manchester United’s striking problems.