Liverpool set to profit from Awoniyi's Nottingham Forest transfer

Cameron Smith

Updated: 24 Jun 2022 15:12 BST
3 min read

Union Berlin striker Taiwo Awoniyi — © ProShots

Nottingham Forest are set to complete the signing of Union Berlin forward Taiwo Awoniyi for a club-record fee of €19.8 million as they prepare for life back in the Premier League.

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Victory over Huddersfield Town at Wembley in the Championship Play-Off final ensured Forest's place back in the top flight of English football for the first time in 23 years.

Steve Cooper took over with the club sat rock bottom of the second-tier table, but guided them to fourth place in the regular season before beating Huddersfield in 'the richest game in football.'

The club have reacted to their promotion quickly, with the addition of Awoniyi, who has developed an impressive reputation across Europe over the past few years.

Brennan Johnson and Lewis Grabban were the only two Forest players to net more than eight Championship goals last season, and with Grabban now 34, forward upgrades were deemed a priority.

Awoniyi was identified after scoring 15 goals in just 31 Bundesliga games last season, and a club-record deal was agreed with the player and Union Berlin, who only signed him permanently last summer.

Forward planning from Liverpool

The Nigerian becomes Forest's first signing of the summer, but they aren't the only club to benefit from his arrival at the City Ground. In fact, Liverpool will also be thankful for his departure from Union Berlin.

That's because the Reds inserted a 10% sell-on clause in his contract when they sold the forward to Union last summer. Awoniyi joined Liverpool back in 2015, but problems with a work-visa, as many non-EU players face when attempting to join Premier League clubs, meant he never played for the club.

Awoniyi went on seven different loans spells after joining Liverpool from Imperial Academy in his native Nigeria in 2015, with the last of these to Union in 2020/21.

The Bundesliga club were impressed with what they saw and after Awoniyi trained with the Liverpool first-team in pre-season last summer, he was sold to Union for €7.5m.

© ProShots - Taiwo Awoniyi never played for Liverpool

If Liverpool had instead loaned him for one further season and then sold to Forest themselves, they would've made €19.8m from the player, but earning €7.5m, plus a further €1.98m from the 10% sell-on clause for someone who never wore the shirt in a game is yet more great business.

After selling deadwood assets such as Jordan Ibe, Danny Ward and Rhian Brewster, just to name a few, in recent years, Liverpool have done it again with shrewd business in the market.

€1.98m may not sound like a lot to a club with Livepool's resources, but that money could be used to increase Mohamed Salah's salary to meet his demands and ensure the Egyptian signs a new long-term deal at Anfield, for example.