Nottingham Forest's game winner against Liverpool was formerly a Red up until as recently as last year.
Taiwo Awoniyi was scouted as an 18-year-old, by Liverpool back in 2015. He was immediately loaned out to FSV Frankfurt.
Here's his remarkable path to playing in the best league in the world.
Loan spells
While being contracted to Liverpool, Awoniyi had seven loan spells in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. As you may guess, it wasn’t smooth sailing.
In his first loan spell, Awoniyi suffered relegation with Frankfurt and was loaned to Dutch outfit NEC Nijmegen the subsequent season. This spell ended the same way for him, as he was relegated with NEC as well.
In 2017, he left NEC and joined Belgian side Mouscron on loan. He scored within 22 minutes of his debut for them…
By the summer of 2018, he was awarded a long-term deal by Liverpool and a week later he was out on loan again. This time he joined Gent, another Belgian team, which is a story worth special attention
Gent loan cut short
Gent is the only loan club for which Awoniyi failed to score despite making 16 appearances. The loan didn't see its completion as he was criticised by the head coach Michel Louwagie who said Taiwo didn't use his opportunities — although the loan agreement made it obligatory for Gent to play him
"He started eight times [in all competitions] with us," Louwagie said. "There was also a penalty in the agreement. If he did not start in 70% of the matches, we had to pay that penalty. So we have to pay for him.
"We [did] everything to make him succeed. I think Taiwo works better in a system with two strikers. That was the case in the [Belgian] Cup match against Virton, and things went better."
As the loan was cut short, Awoniyi returned to Mouscron and scored 7 goals in 9 games.
At this point, Awoniyi said that he also had issues with his UK work permit, which threatened to end his Liverpool career.
Move to Germany and horrific injury
He joined Mainz in August 2019, on loan again, and scored 1 goal in 12 appearances.
At Mainz he suffered a terrible accident during a match against Augsburg. Taiwo had a nasty head collision with Felix Uduokhai after which he lay on the ground, motionless.
He appeared to have lost consciousness, while referee Marco Fritz put his fingers into his mouth to keep his tongue from blocking his airway.He was rushed to the hospital and had regained consciousness on the way there.
The next season, Awoniyi joined Union Berlin on loan, where he finally got a permanent move as well the subsequent season.
This was his turning point and the Nigerian forward scored 25 goals in 65 games for the German side, while also notching 9 assists.
Awoniyi’s career on loan
Move to Nottingham Forest
This year on June 25th, Taiwo Awoniyi joined the newly promoted Nottingham Forest on a 5-year deal for a reported fee of £17 million.
He scored his first Premier League goal in a 1-0 win against West Ham and has now scored the winner against Liverpool as well.
He was grateful to Liverpool for kick-starting his career, even though it took him a different route to make it to the Premier League.
“To score against Liverpool is a day I will never forget,” said Awoniyi. “I will always be grateful to Liverpool for scouting me from Nigeria and scoring against them is amazing.”
Awoniyi's goals and assists for each club so far
