Izuchukwu Okosi
Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia striker Odion Ighalo will make his return to the Nigerian national team for the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs next month against the Black Stars of Ghana.
Nigeria Football Federation boss Amaju Pinnick disclosed this in a Twitter post made on Thursday.
“I just met with @ighalojude, the highest goalscorer at the 2019 edition of the AFCON, now playing and still scoring goals for Saudi Arabia’s biggest football club,” Pinnick tweeted accompanied by a photograph of him and Ighalo.
“Odion has assured that playing for his country will always come first and he is ready to ensure that we do play at this year’s @FIFAWorldCup in Qatar,” Pinnick enthused.
Former Manchester United striker Ighalo was not released by former Saudi Arabian club Al Shabab for Nigeria’s 2021 Africa Cup of Nations campaign but that seems not to be an issue on his new club.
Ighalo who also had stints at Watford, Udinese, Granada and also in the Chinese league made his debut for the Asian Football Confederation, AFC champions in the Club World Cup in United Arab Emirates, UAE.
Ighalo scored an equalising goal in Al Hilal’s 6-1 demolition of Al Jazira FC. He was impressive on his new side’s 1-0 defeat suffered against Chelsea on Wednesday evening.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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