Akwa United captain Emmanuel Ariwachukwu has joined Sudanese giants Al Hilal Omdurman, reports www.aclsports.com.
The centre back arrived Omdurman over the weekend and passed his medical tests on Monday before putting pen to paper on a two-year contract in the evening.
Ariwachukwu has been an ever present figure in the Akwa United team for the past four football seasons and led the team to the 2018 CAF Confederation Cup tournament where they were eliminated by his new side Al Hilal Omdurman on away goals rule in the last elimination round.
Regarded as one of the best centre backs in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), Ariwachukwu was a member of Nigeria’s Super Eagles B side which lost to Ghana in the final of the West African Football Union (WAFU) Cup in Cape Coast, Ghana last year.
He was however overlooked for this year’s African Nations Championship in Morocco in a move many local league followers termed ridiculous.
Born in Imo state, South Eastern Nigeria, Ariwachukwu has also previously featured Niger Tornadoes in the Nigerian league at the back of a brief stint in the Indian league. He was part of the Akwa United team which won Nigeria’s Cup competition in 2015 and 2017.
By beating Tuesday’s deadline of registration for next season’s competitions, Ariwachukwu will feature for Al Hilal – the Sudanese Premier League champions – in the 2018/19 Total CAF Champions League which will get underway next month.