Odion Ighalo has revealed he took a pay-cut to secure a dream move to Manchester United in the January transfer window.
The Nigerian international signed for United on transfer deadline day after agreeing to return to the Premier League on a five-month loan deal.
Ighalo's return to English football materialised late into the window after United had seen a bid rejected for Joshua King and opted against a move for Paris Saint-Germain forward Edinson Cavani.
The 30-year-old finally agreed terms to move to United less than two hours before the end of the January window, and now he has lifted the lid on how his dream move came about.
“Yeah, it was very dramatic," he told manutd.com
"My agent called me the day before and said Man United. I would love to go. A few other clubs had shown interest, I said please, just pick United, if it’s going to be possible.
"At 11pm in Shanghai, my agent called me [to say] that United want to do the deal, so I woke up that night and started looking for a translator to go to the directors' room and hit his door and all that. My agent wants to speak to you, United are coming for me, you have to make this happen and all that you know. So they started talking and discussing.
"I didn’t sleep throughout that night, because it was going to end at 7am, Shanghai time, and the transfer [window] is going to close there. So, from 11pm, there was paperwork, negotiating and all that, for the loan deal and all that, so we are talking and other teams are calling them, wanting me, but I told my agent that this is what I want. I want to come here. He said you’re going to get a pay-cut to go to United. I said I don’t care. Make this deal happen. I want to go to United. I don’t care how much is the pay-cut, I know that, make it happen.
"So the director and everybody didn’t know what to say anymore, because I had already made up my mind, so my agent started putting it in order, and, at 5am, we finished. My agent said he’d forwarded all the papers to United, they will confirm for me if everything is okay. I think, around 5am-6am, he said everything is okay, it’s done. I was excited. I called my mum and she was happy, crying and all that. This is your dream and all that and I’m happy for you. It was dramatic, I didn’t sleep through, I was very happy that finally we got the deal done.”
