AFCON 2021: There Was Bad Blood After I Couldn’t Play For Nigeria – Ighalo Reveals

Odion Ighalo

Odion Ighalo, the Nigeria striker, has revealed that there was “bad blood” between him and his former club, Al Shabab, after he was blocked from playing at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

Ighalo has since dumped Al Shabab to play for their Saudi Arabian rivals Al Hilal.

“I was not happy with them and we decided to part ways because the Nations Cup that I didn’t go to caused a lot of bad blood,” Ighalo told ESPN.

According to Ighalo, Al Shabab was supposed to issue him an exit visa in order to allow him travel to Cameroon, but did not do so.

He said: “Four hours until my flight [to Cameroon], they had not sent me the exit visa. I called the team manager, and he told me they did not get an invitation. But I had a copy of the invitation that was sent because they copied me in the email.

“We had all this back and forth going on, I changed the ticket to the next day, and then the third day, and they still did not send me the visa. At that point I knew they did not want me to go.

“My anger was that they should have told me straight up, not smiling in my face one day and then acting a different way. That is why I decided to leave.”