So, as social media has been abuzz with the claim that former Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo is the first Nigerian to play for Manchester United, I decided to do a fact check of my own. Guided by an old friend of mine I ended up on a “Runtown mission back to the 1980s,” and boom! I hate to break it to you, but as much as we’d love to keep the fairytale going, history is important too. It turns out Ighalo is not exactly the first Nigerian to wear the shirt of Manchester United. That honour goes to a certain Remi Moses.
Remi Moses played as a midfielder for Manchester United for almost a decade, from 1981 to 1989, making 150 league appearances and scoring 7 league goals. This means he played under Sir Alex Ferguson for years. He was also the first black player to score for Manchester United. He was not an ordinary player. He was a key player for his side, although his career was somewhat blighted by injuries.

There were prospects of him playing for Nigeria at the time, as later did the likes of Reuben Agboola and Tunji Banjo, but it never materialized. Remi’s son, Tunji Moses, later a professional footballer, was born in Manchester in 1983, while his father played for United.
So, there you have it. It is correct to say that Ighalo is the first (ex-) Super Eagles to play for Manchester United, but not correct to say he is the first Nigerian to do so.

While Remi Moses is mostly identified as English, it will be almost criminal to say that he is not a Nigerian. If you think otherwise, then by the same logic, the likes of John Fashanu, Dele Alli, Tammy Abraham, and, of course, Anthony Joshua, who identify officially as English, are not Nigerians. Indeed, every person of Nigerian descent who identifies was born outside Nigeria and carries the passport of another country is not Nigerian. That would be a list of thousands, if not millions. We are like the children of Abraham. We may wonder far and wide, but we are never lost. You get the point.

Keep your story to yourself..remi is more English than Nigerian.. if not for Injury I'm sure he would have played for England