The Nigerian strikers has had seven loan spells since joining Liverpool in 2015.
Since signing for Liverpool FC from Nigeria’s Imperial Academy in 2015, Taiwo Awoniyi has had to move from club to club, unable to play in England due to his inability to secure a work permit. The striker clocked a remarkable seven loan spells in six years. The teams Taiwo has played for include: German second-tier club FSV Frankfurt, Dutch side NEC Nijmegen, Belgian outfits Royal Excel Mouscron (twice), KAA Gent, Bundesliga teams Mainz, and (his most recent club) Union Berlin. That finally seems to be over as Taiwo finally attained the work permit, and will be eligible to link up with the Liverpool squad this season.
A top official at Imperial Academy spoke to BBC Sport Africa about the long road it took Awoniyi to get to this point:
“It’s been a long process but finally [Taiwo] Awoniyi can now focus on his career either at Liverpool or somewhere in England.”
“He has the ambition to play in the Premier League and hopefully he can do that next season.”
At Union, Awoniyi managed to score five goals in 20 games, in an injury-blighted campaign. It remains to be seen if Taiwo will play for Liverpool FC, especially if rumours of the club selling fringe players to raise money for transfer are true, but hopefully he’ll get a chance to make his mark on English football, whether at Liverpool or somewhere else.
