Taiwo Micheal Awoniyi (born 12 August 1997) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for club Nottingham Forest and the Nigeria national team.

Club career

Early career

In 2010, Awoniyi was voted the Most Valuable Player at a Coca-Cola football competition in London. His performance at the competition was spotted by Seyi Olofinjana who invited him to join the Imperial Soccer Academy.

Liverpool

On 31 August 2015, Awoniyi signed for English club Liverpool for a fee of around £400,000 but was immediately loaned out to German team FSV Frankfurt.

Loans to FSV Frankfurt and NEC

Awoniyi made his debut for Frankfurt as a late substitute in a German Cup match against Hertha Berlin. After being named as a substitute for six league matches, he made his debut on 19 February 2016, playing 89 minutes against FC St. Pauli. Awoniyi suffered relegation with Frankfurt, and he returned to Liverpool at the end of the season. On 26 August 2016, Dutch team NEC confirmed that Awoniyi had joined them on a season-long loan and was expected to join the squad the following week after the formalities of his work permit were completed. On 10 September, he made his Eredivisie debut in a 40 defeat of NEC to PSV Eindhoven, being replaced in the 72nd minute by

Michael Heinloth Michael Heinloth (born 9 February 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays as a right-back. Club career Heinloth joined SC Paderborn 07 in 2014 from 1. FC Nürnberg. He made his Bundesliga debut at 20 September 2014 against Hannov ...

.With NEC, the Nigerian suffered his second consecutive relegation, being relegated from Eredivisie in 2017.

Loans to Mouscron and Gent

In July 2017, Awoniyi left NEC and joined Belgian club

Royal Excel Mouscron Royal Excel Mouscron (, ), commonly known as Mouscron or familiarly as REM, was a Belgian professional football club based in Mouscron. The team was formed as ''Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz'' in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging between ...

on a season-long loan, and made his debut on 12 August when he started the match against

KSC Lokeren Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen (; often simply called Sporting Lokeren or Lokeren) was a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Lokeren, in the province of East Flanders. The club was founded in 1923 but cea ...

, scoring within 22 minutes. On 17 July 2018, Awoniyi signed a new long-term deal with Liverpool, and on 23 July sealed a season-long loan to another Belgian club, Gent. On 11 January 2019, it was announced that his loan to Gent was cut short, and Awoniyi was loaned to Mouscron again. In April he said that his struggle to get a UK work permit could end his Liverpool career.

Loans to Mainz 05 and Union Berlin

On 6 August 2019, Liverpool confirmed Awoniyi had joined Bundesliga side Mainz 05 on a season-long loan. He was hospitalized in June 2020, after sustaining a severe concussion during a 1–0 loss to FC Augsburg in the league. On 19 September 2020, Awoniyi left for his seventh loan spell, this time joining Bundesliga side Union Berlin for a year.

Union Berlin

On 20 July 2021, Awoniyi rejoined Union Berlin, this time on a permanent basis. The German club reportedly paid £6.5 million for the forward. Liverpool negotiated a 10% sell-on clause in this deal.

Nottingham Forest

On 25 June 2022, Awoniyi completed a move to newly promoted Premier League side Nottingham Forest on a five-year deal. The transfer fee paid was a club record for Forest, reportedly £17 million. On 14 August 2022, he scored his first Premier League goal in a 1–0 win against West Ham United. On 22 October 2022, he scored the winning goal against Liverpool in the Premier League match at home.

International career

Awoniyi represented Nigeria at the

2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the fifteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The tournament was held in the United Arab Emirates between 17 October and 8 November. Nigeria won the tournament after defeating Mexico 3–0 in the final, cla ...

and went on to win the tournament, scoring four goals during the competition. He also represented Nigeria at the

2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the twentieth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The competition took place for the first time in New Zealand, the third time on Oceanian soil after ...

in New Zealand after winning the

2015 African U-20 Championship The 2015 African U-20 Championship was the 20th edition of the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. The tournament took place in Senegal between 8� ...

in Senegal. On 12 April 2015, he scored a brace on his debut for the Nigeria U-23 team in a match against Zambia, as his team went on to qualify for the 2015 All African Games. He was selected by Nigeria for their 35-man provisional squad for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. He was selected by Gernot Rohr in late 2021 to represent Nigeria at the

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tourn ...

, making his debut in their 1–0 loss to the Central African Republic. Awoniyi was selected to represent Nigeria at the AFCON 2021 where he led the line for Nigeria throughout the tournament. His only goal during the tournament came in the 3-1 group stage win against Sudan.

Style of play

Parallels have been drawn between Awoniyi's style of play, and that of

Rashidi Yekini Rashidi Yekini (23 October 1963 – 4 May 2012) was a Nigerian professional footballer who played as a forward. He is all-time top goalscorer for his nation. His professional career, which spanned more than two decades, was mainly associated wit ...

, Nigeria's all-time highest goalscorer.

Personal life

Awoniyi has a younger twin sister called Kehinde. He married his partner Taiwo Jesudun in an engagement and traditional wedding in Kabba on 15 June 2018, followed by a white wedding on 16 June in

Ilorin Ilorin is the List of capitals of states of Nigeria, capital city of Kwara State in Western Nigeria.. Retrieved 18 February 2007 As of the 2006 census, it had a population of 777,667, making it the List of Nigerian cities by population, 7th ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Nigeria U17 * FIFA U-17 World Cup:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Nigeria U20 *

African U-20 Championship The U-20 Africa Cup of Nations also called TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsoring reason (previously known as the African Youth Championship or the African U-20 Championship) is the main international youth football (soccer), foo ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Individual *

Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Awoniyi, Taiwo 1997 births Living people People from Ilorin Sportspeople from Kwara State Nigerian footballers Association football forwards Liverpool F.C. players FSV Frankfurt players NEC Nijmegen players Royal Excel Mouscron players K.A.A. Gent players 1. FC Union Berlin players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Eredivisie players Belgian First Division A players Premier League players Nigeria youth international footballers Nigeria under-20 international footballers Nigeria international footballers 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Yoruba sportspeople