Odion Ighalo has revealed he quit Al Shabab for Riyadh rivals Al Hilal after they blocked him from featuring at the recent AFCON in Cameroon.
Ighalo, 32, terminated his contract with Al Shabab last month and he has since been firing with Al Hilal.
On Thursday night, he scored twice to help his new club trounce Al Shabab 5-0 in the league.
Ighalo revealed that refusal by Al Shabab to allow him play at the AFCON led to bad blood and his eventual departure.
“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.
“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.”
