Liverpool loanee Taiwo Awoniyi has been handed a second chance at Mainz with Bundesliga boss Achim Beierlorzer praising his ‘sensational’ performances in training and some ‘insane’ levels of application, while speaking to Kicker.
In the final few days of the January transfer window, it seemed only a matter of time before Mainz cut the Nigerian’s season-long loan spell short. After all, his time in Germany could hardly have gone much worse.
Awoniyi gave away a penalty in the space of just four minutes during his debut in August, a 3-0 defeat to Freiburg. The phrase ‘start as you mean to go on’ came to mind with the 22-year-old soon finding himself frozen out of the first-team picture under Bierlorzer.
The former Frankfurt and Gent forward was even omitted from the matchday squad for nine consecutive games recently. But, if anyone has benefited from the two-month hiatus caused by the global health pandemic, it is the Liverpool-owned Awoniyi.
The youngster has trained like an animal behind the scenes, with Bierlorzer appearing to have performed a dramatic U-turn on a player who suddenly finds himself back in favour. Awoniyi continued his recent renaissance with a well-taken tap-in to spark Mainz’s comeback against Cologne on Saturday.
“He has always had an insane attitude to professional sports and accepted all my decisions with absolute respect,” Bierlorzer says.
“In the internal tests, he produced a sensational performance.”
Speaking to Sporting Life in September, Awoniyi claimed that he still has a future at Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp advising the youngster to prove himself in the Bundesliga before potentially returning to fight for a first-team berth at Anfield.
Yet he will need more displays like the one on Saturday if Awoniyi is to have Roberto Firmino and co glancing over their shoulders.
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