Odion Ighalo: 'I turned down £300,000-a-week deal after listening to God'
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Updated 06/02/2016 at 11:04 GMT
Odion Ighalo has claimed he rejected the chance of a £300,000-a-week move to China because God told the Watford striker it wasn't for him.
Odion Ighalo
Image credit: AFP
"I have 14 goals in the Premier League, how do I go to China now?" said Nigerian forward Ighalo, 26, who claimed he turned down the move after helping Watford win promotion from the Championship last season.
I prayed about it, and God said it was not for me, no matter how much money it was. I knew God would direct me. When I said I don’t want to go, they offered me more money, almost £300,000 a week. I told them it’s not about the money.’
Ighalo signed a five-year contract with Watford last September after owner Gino Pozzo allowed him to speak to the Chinese club Hebei China Fortune.
China's Super League is rapidly become a major player in the world's transfer market with Jackson Martinez joining Guangzhou Evergrande from Atletico Madrid, Ramires leaving Chelsea for Jiangsu Suning for around £25m and Liverpool target Alex Teixeira swapping Shakhtar Donetsk for Ramires' new club in a £35m transfer before the Chinese window closes on February 26.
Ighalo is understood to be on around £30,000 a week at Vicarage Road, but the prospective move to China was worth 10 times that.
It would have earned him around £40m over five years.
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Watford Manager Quique Sanchez Flores and Odion Ighalo pose with the Barclays Manager and Player of the Month awards for December
Image credit: Reuters
Even if he moves to one of the Premier League's biggest spenders, the man from Lagos will not earn such outlandish sums of money.
The standard of football in China is obviously a concern, but Ighalo admits he was close to being blinded by the sums involved.
"I was very close," he told the Daily Mail.
They made a £10m bid and were offering me over £200,000 a week; a four-year contract. I couldn’t sleep for three days. That kind of money is not easy to turn down. Some team-mates in the dressing room were saying, You can’t miss this chance. But I don’t jump into decisions like that.
"They have called again and I have turned them down again.
"Maybe if I keep scoring goals, that team will come with triple the money at the end of the season. When the time is right to go to China I will know. If it’s for me it will come to pass.
"When I was in Ajegunle, I was watching the Premier League, dreaming one day I would be part of it. If I keep doing what I’m doing I can enjoy my football in England for four, five or six years.
"I helped this team to promotion. How can I leave because of money? I know money is good. With that sort of money I can secure my life. But you can’t sell your dream."
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