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On the 31st August 2015, Liverpool signed 18 year old Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi for £400,000 after he impressed for Nigeria’s imperial soccer academy.

Five years, seven loans and 29 goals later, Awoniyi finds himself in the Bundesliga for cult side, Union Berlin. A club that when Awoniyi signed for Liverpool, had recently finished seventh in the second tier of German football.

With an iconic promotion, followed by hard-fought survival in their maiden Bundesliga season, the side from the capital are now conquering the division and gaining points off of the giants of the Bundesliga, in their second season. 

At the beginning of the season, Union’s attack was integrated around new signing, 32 year old Max Kruse, who sat behind Awoniyi. An amalgamation of impressive goal scoring, converting defence into attack and a few long-range strikes from the Bundesliga veteran guided Union to clinching points and rising to the heights of the Champions League qualification places.

However, the side’s season took a powerful jolt, as Kruse picked up a knee injury at the dawn of December. This left the side looking for someone to position their team around, as their main man looked to be out for two months.

This acted as an opportunity for Taiwo Awoniyi to become the centrepiece of a performing side in one of Europe’s top leagues, contrasting to previous opportunities at Mainz in the previous season where he scored one goal in a dozen cameo appearances. Unfortunately, he ended his campaign, being stretchered off with severe concussion in a 1-0 loss to Augsburg.

His first goal for Union illustrates his play style perfectly. It came in a 2-1 win over Cologne, in November. His ability is centered around his power and his best asset, his hold up play. In the goal, Awoniyi shrugs off two Cologne defenders with ease and ferociously cannons it past Timo Horn, the Cologne goalkeeper, perfectly placing it into the bottom corner.

This further highlighted his brute force, shown from a young age in the African U20 championships, with a Goal article from the time saying he “terrified defences with his physicality” and that he was drawing comparisons to Rashidi Yenkini, the top all time goalscorer for Nigeria. 

He continued as he started after his goal against Cologne, with a strike against city rivals Hertha  and a powerful free header finished with aplomb against Stuttgart. He led the team to an landmark victory over Borussia Dortmund, without Max Kruse, opening the scoring using expert positioning to use his head to divert a team mate’s header goalward. 

This led to a Union win that stunned the league as they continued accelerating up the table. He added another with yet another fantastic use of positioning to find himself space to prod in a delicate finish against Werder Bremen in a 2-0 win. As the season progresses, Awoniyi finds himself with five goals and two assists, providing creative build-up play as well, and he is certain to add to the total as the season develops.

His use of his physicality, combined with his power in his shot and good positioning, merge to  create a fantastic footballer with a unique combination of skills who could prove a useful player for Liverpool. Especially as a possible replacement for Roberto Firmino.

Awoniyi is a less skilful player than the Brazillian but fits the build of a defensive striker and speaks eloquently in interviews about his love and admiration for the Merseyside club. Firmino also has received criticism as of late for a lack of goalscoring and has led to him being dropped by Jurgen Klopp.

During Klopp’s management it is shown that the German is a fan of strikers ripe with good positional sense who can finish with sheer power as shown in Firmino, Lewandowski and even Divock Origi who is another player that Awoniyi could replace in the squad at Liverpool.

It is believed that Awoniyi does obtain many of the abilities shown in these players at his young age. However, time is of the essence and this decision would have to come in the next few seasons from Klopp or Awoniyi could become wasted potential, cursed with constant loans abroad from a Premier League side such as that of Lucas Piazon at Chelsea.

The remainder of the season will certainly be an interesting opportunity for Awoniyi as he attempts to impress Klopp and implement himself into a top side or he continues to impress Union Berlin leading to a possible permanent transfer.

Overall, his recent performances demonstrate his impressive physicality and power that give him the tools to become a top goal scorer and creative attacker. He is certainly a player to follow with keen interest over the next few years and we could just witness a player take their game to the next level and become a great.