Friday 16 October 2015 01:03, UK
With the help of journalists from Norway and Spain, we profile Watford striker Odion Ighalo - now the top scorer in English football in 2015.
Sergio Aguero scored five against Newcastle last time out but there's still a Premier League striker with more English league goals than him this year. Odion Ighalo's equaliser for Watford against Bournemouth took his tally for the calendar year to 21 goals. The Nigerian is the country's top scorer in 2015.
Remarkably, it was only earlier this month that Ighalo was surpassed as the Championship's top scorer in the calendar year - and he scored his last goal at that level in mid-April. The 26-year-old was a surprise hit for the Hornets, scoring 16 times after Christmas to help the team into the top flight.
Last season's goals came at a rate of one every 97 minutes. It wasn't a fluke. Even in the Premier League, the goals have continued to come. Five and counting at a rate of one every 122 minutes this season. So how did this goalscorer end up at Watford? It's certainly been a curious route to the top.
Indeed, it's tempting to think that Ighalo's relatively late blooming can be explained by his unusual career progression. Born in Lagos, his European adventure began in Norway with mid-table Lyn. Before long he was attracting attention from fellow Tippeligaen rivals Brann but the deal was scuppered by interest from Italy.
Oyvind Askeland is a journalist with Norwegian paper VG and recalls the fuss. "Lyn were investing heavily in talents from Nigeria in the middle of the 2000s," Askeland told Sky Sports. "But as with John Obi Mikel when he became a Chelsea player, there was quite a lot of trouble around Ighalo when he left for Udinese after two seasons in Norway.
"Brann announced in July 2008 that they had signed Ighalo and even sold one of their strikers to make room for him. Brann said that they had a 'gentleman's agreement' with Ighalo and his agent Atta Aneke but this was denied by the pair. The case was sent to the Norwegian FA but they didn't find anything wrong and Brann decided not to appeal."
The Udinese move was not a success. Ighalo scored just once in Serie A before being loaned to Granada in Spain's third tier. The club had been newly acquired by Giampaolo Pozzo, the long-time owner of Udinese and marked the beginning of an unusual five-year loan stay that took Ighalo all the way to La Liga.
He has a lot of attributes that match the Premier League which didn't match La Liga. There are more spaces here, and because he's fast and can get to the ball first it helps him.
He had his moments in Spain. There was the time, in 2013, when he gave Granada the lead against Barcelona before two second-half goals by Lionel Messi stole the headlines. The following year he was among the exclusive group of players to breach Atletico Madrid's defence in their title-winning campaign.
However, in total, Ighalo scored just 12 goals in 74 La Liga games. And yet, the potential was there. Spanish football expert Guillem Balague believes he is simply better suited to English football. "Some people don't realise how much of a goalscorer Ighalo is," Balague told Sky Sports. "He has a lot of attributes that match the Premier League which didn't match La Liga.
"For instance, in La Liga the marking is tighter and more collective. There are more spaces here, and because he's fast and can get to the ball first it helps him. Sometimes, the same as how Roberto Soldado is a striker for La Liga and not for the Premier League, it works the other way around."
Released by Udinese last October, his loan deal at Watford - yet another club owned by the Pozzo family - was immediately converted into a permanent transfer. He soon won over supporters, scoring four second-half goals against Blackpool, and the club's then boss Slavisa Jokanovic praised his quality and work rate. But the summer threatened to bring another twist.
The Chinese second tier was looming for the nomadic Ighalo. Hebei China Fortune had come up with a reported £10m offer and a salary of around £50,000 per week. He was tempted. "They offered me crazy money," said Ighalo. "But I don't think it is a good league for me. It is not always about the money." Staying put already looks a smart move.
Not only does Ighalo have a key role in the dressing room, such as in helping former Granada team-mate Allan Nyom settle in at the club, but he has developed a strong partnership with Watford captain Troy Deeney. It's the sort of chemistry that Ighalo cannot rely upon finding elsewhere.
So far this season, Deeney has assisted three of his goals. That makes it the most common goal combination in the Premier League. Operating slightly deeper, Deeney has sacrificed his own goalscoring instincts to help bring the best out of his partner. "We put Ighalo closer to the goal as his feeling close to the goal is good," said Watford boss Quique Sanchez Flores.
That's certainly proving to be the case. Ighalo is one of only 13 forwards in the Premier League to get five or more clear-cut chances this season and he boasts the best conversion rate among all of them. While Ighalo praises Deeney's work rate, even his skipper admits Ighalo is "naturally a better finisher" than him.
You can see that they're never more than 10 or 15 yards apart from each other. That's the sign of a good partnership.
They have worked at the partnership. Ighalo says playing "closer together" was the plan, and former Watford and England striker Kevin Phillips feels that's key. "You can see that they're never more than 10 or 15 yards apart from each other," Phillips told Sky Sports. "That's the sign of a good partnership. And this boy can score. He's a goalscorer."
The challenge now is to keep the run going. Recently, Ighalo spoke of his pride at his top-scorer status but, with Jordan Rhodes and Benik Afobe playing in the division below, maintaining his advantage might be too much to expect. Flores will settle for keeping his top scorer happy at Vicarage Road.
"He took a decision two months ago to stay here at Watford," said Flores. "He had offers from other teams but he decided to stay, so it's clever because he saw something in the football that is good for him. He is involved a lot with the team in training during the week, so for us, he is a very important player." He's becoming more important all the time.
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