Taiwo Awoniyi has spoken candidly about walking an hour to training in Ilorin, making his own boots from scraps, and the faith that carried him from Nigeria’s streets to England’s top flight with Nottingham Forest.
The Boy From Ilorin Who Refused to Stop Walking
There’s a version of Taiwo Awoniyi’s story that reads like fiction. A boy from Kwara State, walking an hour each way to training in Ilorin’s blistering heat, stitching together discarded football boots because his family couldn’t always afford new ones, dreaming of a stage that seemed impossibly far away. Today, that same boy is a Premier League striker. And he hasn’t forgotten a single step of the journey.
In a long-form interview published on Nottingham Forest’s official website, the 28-year-old Super Eagles striker reflected on a career built on sacrifice, faith, and a refusal to quit when every circumstance gave him reason to.
“I was born in Nigeria, and I grew up in the city of Ilorin, which is where I started my football career at the age of seven. I started at the now Unicorn Academy, and I was away from home a lot of the time. I used to walk an hour to training every day to achieve my dream of becoming a Premier League footballer. That’s how it all began for me.”
It wasn’t just the distance. Getting the basic tools of the game was its own battle.
“It was really difficult getting football boots, going to training, getting money for transport. Sometimes I had to make my boots myself; I would go and get boots that were left over and make them up. Further along the line, my dad was able to buy them to support me, but not everyone has this privilege or the chance to play on a standard pitch. Sometimes we would play on the sand.”
From Golden Eaglets Glory to Liverpool’s Long Wait
Awoniyi’s talent was never the question. In 2013, he was part of the Golden Eaglets squad that won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, finishing the tournament with four goals. He shared that dressing room with Kelechi Iheanacho and Akindele Alampasu, and the world took notice. Two years later, he also represented Nigeria at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand, after helping the Flying Eagles win the African U-20 Championship in Senegal.
Liverpool came calling in August 2015, signing him for around £400,000. But English football’s work permit rules blocked his path to the first team entirely. He’d spend six years at Anfield without making a single senior appearance for the club, enduring seven separate loan spells across Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
FSV Frankfurt, NEC Nijmegen, Royal Excel Mouscron (twice), Gent, Mainz 05, and finally Union Berlin. Each move was a gamble. Some worked, some didn’t. He suffered back-to-back relegations at Frankfurt and NEC. He was hospitalised with a severe concussion at Mainz. But at Union Berlin, under the calm and meticulous Urs Fischer, something clicked. He scored 20 goals in 43 games, earned a permanent move to Berlin, and made Nottingham Forest sit up and pay attention.
A Club-Record Signing With a Point to Prove
In June 2022, Forest paid a then club-record £17 million to bring Awoniyi to the City Ground on a five-year deal. The faith was immediate. He scored his first Premier League goal in a 1-0 win over West Ham on August 14, 2022, and in October of that same year, netted the winner against his former club Liverpool at the City Ground. Jurgen Klopp, gracious in defeat, said of him: “He has arrived where he belongs.”
The 2022/23 campaign ended with Awoniyi scoring six goals in four games including a crucial winner against Arsenal on May 20, 2023, that kept Forest in the Premier League. Then in August 2023, he became the first Forest player to score in six consecutive Premier League matches since Stan Collymore in 1995. That’s the level of football Awoniyi is capable of when fit and firing.
Injuries, an Induced Coma, and a Comeback Story
But injuries have repeatedly interrupted his momentum. The most alarming came on May 11, 2025, during a Premier League match against Leicester City. Awoniyi collided violently with the crossbar while chasing a goal. What followed was terrifying: emergency surgery for a ruptured intestine, an induced coma at the ICU, and days of anxious waiting. He emerged from the coma on May 15, sending a heartfelt message to fans back home: “To everyone back home in Nigeria who has checked in on me, prayed for me and left kind words, thank you. I see them. I feel them.”
He has since returned to full training and the 2025/26 season, though his role has been reduced significantly. With Chris Wood having netted 20 Premier League goals last term and new manager Vitor Pereira now at the helm, Awoniyi has made just 26 league appearances this season, starting only once. The minutes are thin. There’s talk he could leave in the summer.
But even that context doesn’t diminish what he’s built. FootballInNigeria.com.ng has tracked his journey closely, and what stands out is not just the goals but the resilience behind them. He has now scored 20 goals in 96 games for Forest. Not prolific by the numbers, but remarkable given what he’s had to overcome.
Faith, Gratitude, and What It All Means
The thread running through Awoniyi’s entire story is faith. He’s a devout Christian who frequently credits God for carrying him through the darkest moments. His father is a retired police officer from Ilorin who once borrowed money to pay for his son’s school exams. That’s the foundation this Premier League career was built on.
“It’s really special for me to be where I am now because of how hard I have worked, but it’s something I don’t want to lose either. I’m so thankful for every match because I know what it takes to get to where I am today. I always have to give thanks to God. I’ve always said there is someone up there who is looking after me, which is my belief. When I look back, I’m always proud of how far I have come because I’ve managed to achieve everything I’ve always wished for.”
These aren’t the words of someone taking stock at the peak of his powers. They’re the words of a man who made his boots from scraps and walked an hour to training every single day. That’s what makes Awoniyi’s story worth telling again and again.
Whether he remains at Nottingham Forest beyond the summer window or moves on to a new chapter, his journey from Ilorin to the City Ground is one of Nigerian football’s most compelling stories of the modern era. For fans looking to back Awoniyi’s continued contributions at club and international level, the Bet9ja YOHAIG promotion code offers up to ₦100,000 in bonus funds to wager on Premier League and Super Eagles fixtures.
📌 Did You Know?
- Awoniyi scored four goals at the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup and was initially playing second fiddle in the squad until Isaac Success suffered an injury, opening the door for him to shine.
- In 2010, a teenage Awoniyi won the Most Valuable Player award at a Coca-Cola football competition in London, which caught the eye of former Super Eagles midfielder Seyi Olofinjana, who invited him to join the Imperial Soccer Academy.
- Awoniyi went through seven separate loan spells during his six years at Liverpool, spending time in three countries (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium) without ever making a single first-team appearance for the Reds.
- His £17 million transfer to Nottingham Forest in 2022 was a club record at the time. Liverpool also negotiated a 10% sell-on clause in his prior deal with Union Berlin, meaning they profited further from his move to Forest.
- Awoniyi runs the Taiwo Awoniyi Foundation, which supports youth football development in Kwara State through donations of jerseys, meals, and programmes like the Kwara Kiddies League to nurture emerging talent.
- Comparisons have been drawn between Awoniyi’s style of play and that of Rashidi Yekini, Nigeria’s all-time record goalscorer with 37 international goals. Both strikers share powerful physicality and a poacher’s instinct in front of goal.
- The abdominal injury Awoniyi suffered against Leicester City in May 2025 prompted FIFA to trial new offside technology, as the incident raised questions about the delay in stopping play while Awoniyi lay injured on the pitch.
