31 January 2020, the window is shutting, United are short up front.

Enter Odion Ighalo on loan from Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua in what felt like deadline-day improvisation. As Ighalo was the first player from Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, to represent United the spotlight was thrust onto him and by association, United’s following in Africa. He was also a childhood United fan and was a breath of fresh air in the media, with a nod given to this recently by Patrick “Dorgi Best” Dorgu when he said “in that position I just have to smash it” of his strike
against Arsenal at the Emirates.

Manchester United’s first-team has truly become a global melting pot over the decades due to the global nature of the game and as such talent identification networks have expanded. Players representing 51 nations and counting spanning Europe, Africa, the Americas and beyond, have worn the famous red shirt, reflecting the club’s global reach and appeal, both on and off the pitch.

The pathway from Africa to Old Trafford has never been as well trodden as elsewhere.

Quinton Fortune blazed the trail in 1999, and since then only a...