Odion Ighalo Says He 'Never Imagined' He Would Play for Manchester United

Odion Ighalo has said he "never imagined" he would end up playing for Manchester United when he was a Red Devils supporter as a child. 

The Nigerian joined United on loan from Chinese club Shanghai Greenland Shenhua in January until the end of 2019-20.

It was a surprising, and for some underwhelming, move but necessary after Marcus Rashford was sidelined with a back injury in United's FA Cup replay against Wolverhampton Wanderers in January:

The 30-year-old striker has made a positive impact at United, scoring four goals in three starts, including a stunner against LASK in last week's 5-0 UEFA Europa League victory:

Despite being a childhood United fan, Ighalo said he never believed he would actually end up playing for them, per beIN Sports (h/t Goal's James Westwood):

"When you say those kinds of things (about playing for United when he was a child), people say 'are you crazy?' because back then you don't even know what the future holds. First you just want to go outside the country to start playing—even for a small team, not even to talk of going to United.

"But my support for the team was great. I tried to see every game of United every weekend if possible. I still remember those memories. I never imagined it was going to turn out this way. Even when I played in the Premier League for Watford, I never thought this was going to happen."

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hinted after the match against LASK that the club could make Ighalo's loan deal permanent if he continues in his current vein of form:

As an orthodox No. 9, he is the type of player United have been missing since they sold Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan last summer.

Rashford and Anthony Martial have stepped up their goalscoring this term to make up for the absence of a traditional striker. But United are lacking the goals they need to compete for the Premier League title again.

After 29 games of the 2019-20 season, the Red Devils have scored 44 league goals and are on track to finish the campaign with a tally around 58.

That would be seven goals fewer than they managed last season, and 28 fewer than they scored in 2012-13, the last time they won the title.

Ighalo's best return in a Premier League season is the 15 he scored for Watford in 2015-16.

He is not going to solve United's goalscoring problems totally, and the Red Devils will likely still need to spend big on a front-line striker in the summer.

But Ighalo has already shown he can be a fantastic squad player who can make telling contributions both as a starter and a substitute.