Ighalo targets Golden Shoe in Egypt

Flying Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo has a personal target heading into the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt and that is to finish as the championship’s top scorer, and with it, the ‘Adidas Golden Ball’.

The tournament doesn’t get underway until next Thursday but as the Flying Eagles get set to depart their Spain training base for the North African country, Ighalo is confident of leading the Nigerian U-20 teams forward line, especially in the absence of Macauley Chrisantus.

Chrisantus, leading scorer at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup in South Korea, had been tipped to lead the Flying Eagles’ forward line in Egypt but he has been ruled out of the tournament by an injury he picked while on duty for German side Karlsruhe.

But in his absence, Ighalo has been finding the back of the net with relative ease in the handful of friendly games played by the Flying Eagles in Spain and he expects the trend to continue by the time the team files out for their opening game of the tournament next Friday against Venezuela.

“I always want to score, and I thank God for making it possible for me to do that in the matches we have played here (in Spain),” begins the Granada of Spain player, who’s on a season-long loan deal from Italy’s Udinese.

“My confidence is really high at the moment and I want it to continue that way by the time the competition starts.”

Ighalo’s confidence stems from the presence of the likes of Lukman Haruna, Yakubu Alfa and Rabiu Ibrahim in the Flying Eagles midfield, as well as British-based wingers, Aberdeen’s Sone Aluko and Charlton’s Danny Uchechi. And he believes he could end up as the tournament’s top scorer although that won’t be his primary target in Egypt.

“With those kind of guys around you there is no way you cannot score,” he continued. “They make things so easy for you, and if things go as expected in Egypt we will definitely be scoring a lot of goals; not just me but everyone in the team, except maybe the goalkeepers.

“I don’t know how many I will end up scoring but I will love to score in every match and maybe finish as the top scorer. But the team comes first and there would be nothing better than winning the cup.”

Winning the cup will definitely be a first for Nigeria, or indeed any African side but Ighalo feels history is about to be rewritten in the land of the pyramids.

“I know no team from Africa has ever won it,” admitted Ighalo, “but I feel we’re strong enough to make history as the first African team to win it.”