Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi was on media duties with Premier League Productions’ Nigerian reporter Anita Nneka Jones this week to discuss his remarkable rise in football, from humble beginnings to scoring in seven consecutive English Premier League games.
Awoniyi was a member of the Golden Eaglets squad that won the 2013 Fifa U17 World Cup and two years later he earned a dream move to Premier League giants Liverpool but left the club on a permanent basis in 2021 without making his first team debut due to a work permit obstacle.
After a season in Germany with Union Berlin, he returned to England to join newly-promoted Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2022 and played a key role as the two-time European champions avoided the drop.
Awoniyi had an incredible start to the 2023-2024 Premier League campaign, scoring or assisting in each of his first five games, and became only the third African player to score in seven consecutive games in the top flight after Emmanuel Adebayor and Mohamed Salah.
Super Eagles legends John Obi Mikel, Nwankwo Kanu and Yakubu Aiyegbeni are among the top Nigerian players to have graced the Premier League.
When asked the player from the African continent he looked up to when he used to watch the Premier League on television back in his homeland, the Nottingham Forest number 9 went for Chelsea legend Didier Drogba, adding that the Nigerian stars who played in the Premier League would understand why he chose the Ivorian.
Awoniyi loves playing against Arsenal, scoring against them last season to help Nottingham Forest maintain their top flight status, and this season again, one of his goals in the seven-game streak came against the north London club.
Explaining the reason he loves Arsenal, Awoniyi said that he started supporting Arsenal right from when he was a kid because they recruited very young players and played good football.
The Super Eagles star is recovering from a groin injury and will not be named in Nottingham Forest’s starting lineup in Sunday’s Premier League tie against his former club, Liverpool at Anfield.
