The Saudi Pro League has gotten immense attention since Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al Nassr after his second stint at Manchester United came to an inglorious end before the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
What has followed has been other global stars such as Neymar, Sadio Mane, Riyad Mahrez, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Roberto Firmino, Georginio Wijnaldum, Kalidou Koulibaly and a host of others moving to the Middle East.
That is an unbelievable pool of talent still at the peak of their powers.
While Ronaldo’s influence on the Saudi Pro League cannot be denied, some players have made a name for themselves in the oil-rich nation before his arrival. One of such is Odion Ighalo.
The Nigerian forward had a good stint in Europe playing for clubs like Granda, Udinese, Watford and Manchester United, as well as in China with Changchun Yatai and Shanghai Shenhua.
The last three years of Ighalo’s career has been in Saudi Arabia playing for Al-Shabab, Al-Hilal and presently Al-Weda. The 34-year-old has a prolific stint in the Arabian Gulf and Afrosport takes a look at the numbers between him and Ronaldo.
Ongoing season (2023-24)
Ronaldo leads the way in the Saudi Pro League this season with 22 goals and nine assists in 20 league games while Ighalo has 12 goals in the same amount of games and is ranked in sixth place on the top scorer’s chart.
It is worth nothing that Ronaldo’s club Al-Nassr are highly placed on the Saudi Pro League table in second place with 53 points while Ighalo’s club Al-Wehda are eight places down in 10th place and 26 points behind.
Ronaldo and Ighalo overall Saudi Pro League goalscoring record
Ronaldo arrived Al-Nassr in the middle of the 2022-23 season and scored a total of 14 goals in 16 games, adding two assists.
Overall, the Portuguese tactician has 36 goals and 11 assists in 36 games.
Ighalo meanwhile moved to Saudi Arabia in the middle of the 2020-21 season. This gives him two season’s advantage over Ronaldo and has more goals and appearances as a result.
He scored 21 league goals with Al-Shabab, 31 goals with Al-Hilal and currently 12 goals with Al-Wehda.
Overall, the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations top scorer has 64 goals and in 91 appearances.
Ighalo might have more goals than Ronaldo but the former Real Madrid man is scoring at an impressive rate (average of one goal per game), which is better than Ighalo’s average (0.70).
*All figures correct as at matchday 22 of the 2023-24 Saudi Pro League season.
