Earlier this month, we covered a story that appeared in Sport/Foot in Belgium claiming that Royal Excel Mouscron, where Taiwo Awoniyi currently is on loan, were going to ask Liverpool for a loan extension.
The Nigerian striker was sent there to the Jupiler Pro League side last summer in order to get some first-team football after he failed to get a work permit to play in England, and he’s enjoying himself away from Anfield.
Scoring seven goals and picking up six assists in 27 games, the 20-year-old is a regular starter for Mouscron, and he wouldn’t exactly be against an extended stay next season if that’s what it came to.
He told Le Soir: “That’ll get sorted between the two clubs and myself when the time comes, but it’s clear that Mouscron are giving me an opportunity to play a lot, which is essential for my development”.
He continued: “I can be credited with a good performance, and I got many positive messages, but I couldn’t be satisfied with a defeat. For me, the collective is more important than the individual.
“My performances are the fruit of my work, determined, necessary, but nothing would be possible without the help of God”.
Needing Nigeria caps, much like his close friend Henry Onyekuru, to get a work permit to play for Liverpool, all he can do is get as much time on pitch as possible to impress his national team’s coach enough in order to get a call up.
And that’s what he’s trying to do.
Already capped six times with his country’s U23s, he probably isn’t far off.
