Wasteful loan move is stagnating Taiwo Awoniyi’s Liverpool career

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The potentially prolific forward is currently suffering from a counterproductive loan spell in the Eredivisie.

After making headlines at the Under-17 FIFA World Cup, Taiwo Awoniyi was one of the most sought-after young talents of world football when he signed for Liverpool. The then 16-year-old bagged four tournament goals for Nigeria, as the free scoring Super Eagles shot their way to the 2015 title – with the forward being dubbed ‘the new Nwankwo Kanu’ by The National.

Awoniyi’s goal scoring abilities have been on regular display at different levels of international youth football – as the front man has 13 goals from his 20 games for various Nigerian national sides in recent years.

The future looked bright for Awoniyi – who, after signing for Liverpool from Nigeria’s Imperial Soccer Academy, was sent on loan to German outfit FSV Frankfurt for the 2015-16 season in order to experience the atmosphere of competitive first team football.

However, whilst the first of Awoniyi’s loan spells away from Anfield may have been successful in meeting this main objective, his most recent foray is proving somewhat of a disaster.

Ahead of the 2016-17 campaign, Awoniyi joined Dutch side NEC Nijmegen on a season-long loan deal with the hope of seeing regular playing time. However, after a successful goal-scoring pre-season campaign with NEC – including a hat trick and two assists on his debut – the 19-year-old has been named in the starting XI on just six occasions and has completed a full 90 minutes just three times all season.

To make matters worse, Awoniyi has found himself out of the first team squad on several occasions – being demoted to NEC’s reserve team. To little surprise to those who are aware of the forward’s abilities, Awoniyi has four goals in his five Beloften Eerste Divisie games for the second string to date.

Liverpool may well feel a sense of frustration that one of their starlets seems to be stagnating in the midst of a nomadic role in the Dutch league – and considering that the Nigerian goal-getter will graduate from his teens and into his twenties at the start of next season, the player himself could be itching for a regular chance to truly start a once promising career – especially after seeing the younger Ben Woodburn grab his chance on both the domestic and international stage.