Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi opens up on his early begining as a professional footballer, European journey and several loan spells npflupdates.com reports.
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Taiwo Awoniyi is the player with the highest goal contributions at English Premier League side Nottingham Forest.
According to Awoniyi, his parents had wanted him to go to the university and get a degree. In his recent interview with The Guardian, the Nigerian had already paid for his exams.
Taiwo Awoniyi reveals initial plan of going to the university to achieve a degree
“My dad actually borrowed the money to pay for my exams,” Awoniyi was quoted by the Guardian.
And he had even visited the agent that was to register him for exams; before he got a call from a popular football academy in Nigeria.
“I went to the person that was supposed to help register me for the exam in the morning and he was not around. I went there again in the evening and they told me he still wasn’t around.
“It was on my way back from that trip that I got a call from the Imperial Soccer Academy [in Nigeria’s Ogun State], that they wanted me.”
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upon receiving the information, Taiwo Awoniyi got back to his father and said: “I do want to keep on going to school. But my passion is football, so let me use this money to get myself down to the academy.”
“I think that was the turning point for me,” he highlighted.
From the academy which was owned by a former Super Eagles player Seyi Olofinjana, Awoniyi was selected by the Golden Eaglets for the FIFA U-17 world cup tournament.
Shortly after the tournament, the former Union Berlin player, signed his first ever European contract with Liverpool. However, he never played for Liverpool due to work permit issues. At that time, for him to feature in the EPL, he had to represent the Super Eagles, hence he went out on loan.
For six hood years, Taiwo Awoniyi went on loan to six different clubs domiciled in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The clubs include FSV Frankfurt(Germany), NEC Nijmegen(Netherlands), Royal Excel Mouscron (Belgium twice), Gent(Belgium), Mainz(Germany) and Union Berlin(Germany).
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After impressing on loan at Union Berlin, the club decided to sign him from Liverpool for £6.5m in July 2021.
Reminiscing on his early days on loan, Awoniyi lamented lack of game time. Two consecutive relegation experiences and exposure to different cultures.
How I suffered relegation twice – Awoniyi
“I didn’t really play a lot of games [at Frankfurt]… the team was relegated. I then went to Holland [Nijmegen] and that was another strange experience … we also got relegated. I said to myself, about the third year, if I go down again or I don’t make anything happen, I have to think about my football career,” he continued.
Then the loan move to Royal Mouscron redefined his goal-scoring prowess. He helped the team stay afloat on the Pro League by netting ten times.
“It was at Mouscron that I really discovered myself, that I saw myself as the player I wanted to be. I scored a goal in my first match and [10] goals with Mouscron that season.”
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Also in the interview as monitored by our correspondent, we gathered that Awoniyi identified Manchester City’s Manuel Akanji as the toughest defender he’s encountered.
According to the Super Eagles forward, he’s encountered him twice during their days in the German Bundesliga, when Akanji was with Borussia Dortmund.
