Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi has been named in the Team of the Week in Belgium reports Completesports.com.
It’s the fifth time in a row this season that the Liverpool loanee is been named in the Belgian team of the week.
This is on the back of his goal Saturday night for Royal Excel Mouscron who beat Lokeren 1-0 in a Belgian League clash.
The strike took his tally to five in six starts for Royal Excel Mouscron since he rejoined the club in the January transfer window. He has also made two assists as well.
According to Belgian website, Voetbalkrant, the former Nigerian U17,U20 and U23 forward was paired in a 3-4-3 formation alongside Yohan Boli of who bagged a hat-trick for St. Truiden in their 3-1 win over Sporting Charleroi last Saturday and Zulte Waregem’s Hamdi Harbaoui in attack.
Club Brugges’ Ethan Horvath was named in goal while the trio of Dylan Bronn, Casper De Norre and Dino Arslanagic were the defenders.
Yannick Bolasie, Yari Verschaeren, Abou Koita and Alexander Sorloth made up the four man midfield.
It remains to be seen if the 21 year old striker will be handed an invitation to the Super Eagles ahead of their 2019 Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Seychelles in Asaba, Delta State on the 23rd of March.
Nigeria are already through to the 2019 AFCON to be hosted by Egypt.
By Johnny Edward.
5 Comments
It’s high time Taiwo Awoniyi stopped being a journeyman by settling down with a club and on a permanent basis also,instead of being farmed out on loan every other season by his parent club, Liverpool. Same goes for all our other young players who are constantly being sent on loan by their parent clubsides.
I would suggest his present club,Royal Excel Mouscron since he seems to have found himself a niche there. With that,he can get to develop proper and horn his skills better.
I guess it depends on the length of his contract and the terms therein. Every player dreams that they can play for a Marquee club and with a Liverpool contract he is half way there.
In an interview he said the rationale behind him going to Gent was to increase his chances of playing in the Europa league and getting a work permit. As that didn’t work out, he opted for a club that he did well in.
I guess his next contract negotiation will be crucial. I agree he needs to settle down somewhere that he enjoys his football, same as Omeruo is looking to balance remaining in La Liga cosplaying at least one match for Chelsea and Osimhen deciding to stay at Charleroi vs retuning to the Bundesliga
“It remains to be seen if the 21 year old striker will be handed an invitation to the Super Eagles ahead of their 2019 Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Seychelles in Asaba, Delta State on the 23rd of March”
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Infact na sidon look we dey. Me sef go quarrel with the coach if Osimhen gets and invitation and Awoniyi does not.
I said it in my previous posts Awoniyi is a more finished product than Osimhen.I have seen both players apparently Osimhen has seen actions in the super eagles but didn’t convince,though showed flashes of what he can do now and again but didn’t really take his chances.I think his invitations came rather too soon.
However,in Awoniyi we have a player that has excelled in all stages of the youth teams.He displaced both Success and Iheanacho for the number 9 challenge for the flying eagles in 2015 to the amazement of everyone and had a good tournament in the youth world cup.He continued with that excellent form to the Olympic team and excelled playing alongside Junior Ajayi as we won the playoffs to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
Awoniyi is a national team material excelling at under 17 is one thing and and repeating such achievements in higher stages of the national teams is another.We have loads of players who showed promise at under 17s but couldn’t manage it as they progress to higher levels of the national team,in Awoniyi we have a different striker who reminds us of our own Rashidi Yekini.
I believe if invited he is not just going to make up the numbers rather stealing the number 9 strip from Ighalo just like he did to Success and Nacho in 2015 will be the ultimate goal of this young prodigiously talented player.
God bless Nigeria
I concur my brother. Having starred at AFCON U17, U20, U23, World Cups U17, U20 and was a standby player for rio 2016, as compared to Osimhen who has only been to AFCON and WC at U17 levels only. Awoniyi has more maturity and international tournament experience to handle the pressure of the senior national team. I very great part of his game is the fact that he doesnt only score, he also makes lots of assists, which makes him an asset to the team either as a lone striker or in a 2 pronged attack