By Toby Prince
With 17 strikes, Nigeria’s Odion Jude Ighalo is the highest goal scorer in England’s top four tiers in 2015.
The Watford striker made a meal out of Chelsea transfer hopeful, John Stones before scoring on his premiership debut less than 10 minutes after coming on, as the Hornets were forced to a 2-2 draw at Everton on Saturday.
Ighalo who scored in the Super Eagles 2-0 victory over Chad in June, has notched the most goals in 2015 making him the outright leading scorer in England according to Opta stats.
What this means is that the 26-year-old has scored more goals so far this year than Premier League heavyweights such as Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa, Harry Kane and Alexis Sanchez.
After unimpressive spells at Udinese and Granada, the Lagos-born attacker joined Watford as a relatively unknown commodity in 2014. Due to his rather mediocre La Liga record, much wasn’t expected from the lad who went on to silence his critics scoring 20 goals to surge Watford’s Premiership hunt.
Compared to Harry Kane (16), Sergio Aguero (13) and Diego Costa (7), the Nigerian rides higher than his contemporaries this calendar year.
Ighalo began his playing career locally with Prime FC before sealing a move to Lyn Oslo in Norway where he grabbed an impressive nine goals in 20 games. He came into prominence in 2009, when he captained his country to the FIFA U20 World Cup in Egypt.
17 – Odion Ighalo has scored the most goals of any player in England’s top four tiers in 2015. Prospect.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 8, 2015
