Nigeria forward Taiwo Awoniyi is set to join French Ligue 1 side, Nice on loan from Liverpool for the 2019/2020 campaign, reports Completesports.com.
Awoniyi joined Liverpool in August 2015 for a fee of around £400,000 but is yet to play an official game for the current European champions.
Liverpool, according to a report in getfrenchfootballnews, have placed a £10m price tag on the former U-17 World Cup winner but Nice are not willing to match their valuation and instead will take the player on loan.
French clubs, Metz and Toulouse are also reported to have made enquiries on his availability, while Club Brugge, Mainz and Hertha Berlin are the other clubs considering making a move for the young forward.
The 21-year -old previous loan spells were with German second-tier club FSV Frankfurt and Dutch side, NEC Nijmegen.
He also had stints with Belgian clubs, KAA Gent and Royal Excel Mouscron (twice).
By Adeboye Amosu
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COMMENTS
This loans deals are affecting this guy. Why can’t he just get a club to buy him outrightly. It would be sad if he doesn’t get a chance to finally play for supereagles after u17 exploits.
It’s not in his power to get a club to buy him outright. He is under contract with Liverpool and they have set a price of £10m. If nobody wants to pay that price then he remains where he is and be loaned out until the end of his contract with Liverpool.
Same issue with Onyekuru, Omeruo and Nwakali. None of them are eligible to play in England because of work permit rules, and their clubs took gambles signing them. Gambles that have not worked out for them nor the players.
@BigD, You’re quite right. But I guess the gamble is paying out for the club in one way or the other. Each season they make money on his head loaning him out to one club or the other. Upon that they’re asking £10m for a player they bought £400k, and have spent almost nothing more to develop. The player is the only one losing here when the club places such a ridiculous amount on his head, even when they know that they cannot use him in the immediate future.
It’s a lesson for our young players – better to start with a modest club and let your talent work you to the top. Left for me, our young players just starting their foreign careers should totally avoid Premiership clubs unless there’s no other option.
Just look development trajectory of the three best players from Amuneke’s 2015 U-17 squad – Nwakali, Osimhen and Chukwueze. Today, Nwakali, the best among the three, and the only one that chose an English club has suffered such a horrific decline in his career while Chukwueze and Osimhen are steadily progressing at commendable pace (or even astronomic pace in the case of Chukwueze). Even in the 2013 U-17 squad, Isaac Success was doing quite well in Italy and Spain before he decided to join the premiership. Today his game has declined as much as Iheanacho who also went to premiership. Awoniyi is even lucky that his loan deals have been to clubs outside England, if not, his case would probably have been worse.
Aleks, I guess you are right, the clubs get a return on investment from the players.
Osimhen, loaned with option to buy for €3m, they bothy him and immediately multiplied their money by 4.
Onyekuru bought for €7m and they are looking for €15m (a profit)
So there is money to be made. But I don’t agree that the clubs are not investing in the players. The training, coaching, etc all cost money and they are being turned from raw players to professional footballers.
I guess it’s still a gamble, bit one that is beginning to see fruit for those in the right place.
All of a sudden, Nigerian players are in demand and it’s good for us all
My brother, I agree with you. The trainings, coaching etc. cost money. But in most of these cases, most of the training and coaching is being done by the clubs that take these players on loan. The parent club does almost nothing except during the few weeks of pre-season. I know, the clubs are in business and are mostly looking for the best way to maximise returns on their investments – nothing wrong with that, except that what may be best for the clubs may not be so good for the players. So our young players and their managers, agents or advisers need to carefully consider the options before them before jumping into any contract – especially with the so called big clubs, most notoriously the English premiership clubs. Offers from these clubs may look quite tantalising at first sight, but may end up a regrettable venture in the long term. Our players definitely have the potentials to succeed in these clubs given the right conditions, but my advice is that they only consider such clubs when they are fully established and have achieved some pedigree playing for modest outfits in other respectable leagues in Euro.