IGHALO: Exponent of Chinese football’s boom time

Changchun Yatai made Odion Ighalo the sixth-most expensive player in the history of the Chinese Super League late last month, as Watford  received 23.5 million euros for the player  who helped mastermind their return to the Premier League big time.

His new club had previously been modest with their transfer dealings, but took the plunge to ensure that their profile and reputation within football received a welcome boost.
Clubs such as Shanghai SIPG, Jiangsu Suning, Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua, Hebei China Fortune and newly-promoted Tianjin Quanjian have been the teams to make the most headlines during the last year due to their signings.

They are backed by big business, except for Changchun Yatai, but Ighalo’s new club recently decided to steer themselves away from being financially prudent and take a big step forward in terms of being a sporting project. It must be remembered that their most expensive signing up until this point was Bolivian player Marcelo Moreno, who cost 2.5m euros two seasons ago.
Ighalo’s arrival is a statement from Changchun, who will be featuring in this season’s Super League after completing a great escape last term. With four games left to play, they needed six points for survival, but Lee Jang-Soo masterminded the miracle turn-around and achieved safety on the final day
Jang-Soo will be looking to get the same performance levels out of Ighalo as Quique Sanchez Flores did last season for Watford, when the Nigeria international was one of the revelations of the Premier League campaign and scored 14 goals in the first half of the season.