Odion Ighalo’s magical goal is a reminder of what we will miss without sports

Manchester United played a Europa League game as a pandemic spread across the globe. The decision to continue European matches, all while other leagues around the world suspended play, was irresponsible. UEFA needlessly put the health of those players involved in jeopardy for purely financial reasons. That a sports league chose profit over safety was not surprising, but it was still infuriating.

During this irresponsible match, something magical happened. Odion Ighalo, who has been having a better time at United than anyone could have reasonably expected, scored an incredible goal. Ighalo juggled the ball three times after receiving a sharp pass from Bruno Fernandes at the edge of the box, alternating feet — right, left, right. Then he rifled into the top corner:

Ighalo’s goal deserved an audience. There should have been thousands of people erupting in delight, singing his name. He should have been able to run in front of those thousands and bask in their adoration. The camera should have panned to stunned children, broadcasting their shocked faces right after they witnessed a goal they will remember for the rest of their lives.

But the stadium was empty. The goal was jarring because of the silence that followed. It was rendered meaningless by a lack of appreciation. At that moment, nothing was more important than the collective health of the human race, not even footballers scoring goals.

Watching Ighalo’s goal felt odd even from afar. As United played, the world was simultaneously receiving a glut of notifications about the spreading virus. The television audience watched a football match while learning new information about the number of people who have died and will die because of Covid-19. As Ighalo scored, a cascade of major public events and institutions were shut down in the name of safety. On social media, highlights of the goal were buried in a stream of anxious tweets from people adjusting to a new world, one where we might be spending weeks isolated from other human beings.

Against this backdrop of collective fear, the goal didn’t feel important, not even in the escapist fashion that sports normally encourage. The panic of the world outside of football was, and is still, overwhelming.

But the goal is still a great reminder of the power of sports. In ordinary times it would have gathered thousands, and maybe millions, of people in mutual appreciation and awe. Ighalo’s goal is an example of a moment that can move us to speechlessness, one in which we can feel how much this silly children’s game affects us. It was a goal to remember, one to invoke a long string of treasured memories. For each of us, it carried the flavors of every brilliant and unexpected moment we’ve ever loved.

That power to affect and connect us will be missed for as long as sports have to disappear for the greater good. We will be losing one of the prominent ways in which people enjoy themselves, escape their lives, engage in a greater community, and approach a feeling like transcendence in the human world.

But the loss of sports is absolutely necessary. Their power is not worth the risk at this moment. So Ighalo’s goal has to feel inconsequential because it is, the illusion of sports ripped away in the name of safety. As Jurgen Klopp said after the Premier League was postponed, the good health of one fan or athlete supersedes whatever effect a goal or game may have on us. The goal was magical, but it could never save a life.

Ighalo’s goal may be the last major sports highlight we have until the pandemic is contained. Because of that, it should serve as a symbol of what we have to look forward to in better conditions. As the world comes together to fight a virus that threatens the health of so many people, we have to say goodbye to sports and its power to move us. When it returns, it will hopefully be in the company of more important news. News that the world has regained some kind of stability, that lives have been saved, and great goals like Ighalo’s can be celebrated as they should, in all of their wonderful and magical unimportance.