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Ighalo: Winning English FA Cup will be a dream come true

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Super Eagles and Watford of England striker, Odion Ighalo, in this interview with London Telegraph speaks on his dream of lifting the English FA Cup and his decision to shun offers from China amongst other salient issues.

FA Cup trophy

It will be a great reception in Lagos this summer if I emerged as an FA Cup winner. That would be great. I am telling you – if I win the FA Cup then I will be going back like a king! The king of Nigeria!”

I watched the finals – I remember big teams like Manchester United and Chelsea playing at Wembley so it means a lot to me to have the chance to get to a final. And I’ve never played in a cup final before, not at any level, not even as a boy, never.

Rejected China move

And I chose my dream first before money. That’s why I turned down an astonishing offer from China – from the club Hebei China Fortune – at the start of this season. I was promised £40million over four years.

Though I am not rich, I am blessed. I know in the future I can make more money if I do well so I keep cool. I want to prove myself.

I believe in God and I prayed when I faced that situation. I am happy that I turned it down and it’s really helped me grow as a person. Yes, it was big money. A lot of money. But I want to keep going in my career. This is a dream come true so to leave the Premier League and go to China was not the right thing.

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And I know I can earn good money here if I prove myself. Maybe other offers will come, maybe with even more money but I have four more years of contract here after this season and I am happy. I’m improving. When I joined Watford I thought they had what it takes to get promoted to the Premier League. That’s why I joined. I wanted that opportunity.”

Watford’s glory

When the league started we were written off. Because of what Leicester City are doing no-one is really looking at other teams who have done well, teams like us and Bournemouth who came up last season from the Championship.

Leicester have been flying so the attention has been on them, everyone has been concentrating on them and understandably so. But this is a chance for people to have a look at us also and understand how well we have done and how well we want to do.

Defenders’ attention

In the first half of the season teams knew me and Troy (Deeney, his strike partner and Watford’s captain) but they did not really pay us attention. I maybe took a lot of people in the Premier League unaware.

Now they are paying us attention. With two strikers like me and Troy up-front teams are now playing three back against us. They have changed the way they play so obviously that’s going to lead to fewer opportunities for us. There are games now when defenders are just on me for the whole game and that wasn’t happening in the first half of the season because they didn’t know me that well.

So it’s tougher. I took my chances before. Like I say, people maybe didn’t know me too much and I took the Premier League unaware. This second half of the season I have been a bit unlucky but there are also more defenders on me. I don’t maybe get the ball the way I did before and they are basing their strategies on stopping me. Defenders are closer to me and Troy, definitely.

But that just gives me strength to work harder and make sure I find a way. It’s what happens in football, it’s the challenge. As long as the team does well I am happy but I am also a striker and I want to score goals.

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Partnership with Deeney

I will tell you it’s a natural thing. We don’t really talk about it and even in training we are usually not on the same team.

He’s a very good striker so when you play alongside someone you have to know the connection. I know when he will make a run, where he is going and where he will play the ball, also. I sense that. We played together in the Championship – he scored 21 goals, I scored 20. So we have always been close together. We knew the Premier League would be tougher but we have continued to work.”

Poor run

Maybe we lost concentration because we felt we were already safe, maybe we didn’t fight as much… but now we have got that back because we know we have to achieve more.

Maybe some people were concentrating on the FA Cup and that we had to concentrate more on the league.

Nevertheless the cup run has been “a bit special” – knocking out Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Arsenal away. The fans want it and we want it. This is a big competition here in England. Now we are safe in the Premier League and although we want to do better this semi-final is a very big thing. It’s a chance for people to have a look at us and understand how we have done.

Playing at Wembley

Not every team in the Premier League can win it but they can win the FA Cup. No-one gave Watford a chance of being where we are today but we are there now and it’s possible for us to win and go to the final.

As a footballer it is all the more special because it is played at Wembley, a great stadium, the great stadium of English football and one that I have not played in before. So that means a lot.

The fans are happy also because they can say they will have a team in the Premier League next season and they have this semi-final. If we play the way we can play we will be able to give them a final to look forward to as well. It would be a dream come true.

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