
Retired Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo has been crowned Goal King at the just concluded 2019 Africa Cup of Nations on Friday night with five goals.
The 30-year-old Shanghai Greenland Shenhua star beat Senegal's Liverpool forward Mane, Algeria’s duo of Riyadh Mahrez and Adam Ounas and Cederic Bakambu of the DRC after the four players scored three goals each.
Ighalo nets the match-winner in the Super Eagles Group B opening game against Burundi before scoring twice against the defending champions Cameroon in the Round 16 but former Watford, Granada and Udinese hitman found back of the net in the quarter-final against South Africa and the semifinal against Algeria and the third-place match against Tunisia.
The Lagos-born was also the top scorer for the qualifiers with seven goals but the feat for the striker see him becomes the sixth Nigeria after Segun Odegbami, Rasheed Yekini, Julius Aghaowa, Jay-Jay Okocha and Emmanuel Emenike win Afcon’s top scorer prize.
Ighalo is currently injured but he will shift his attention to helping Shanghai Shenhua in the Chinese Super League, where he scored seven goals in nine league outings before the 32nd edition continent competition.
The Shanghai outfit are 13th in the Chinese top-flight with, points clear of the drop zone.