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Signed by Liverpool from the Imperial Academy in Nigeria in 2015, Taiwo Awoniyi was sent around Europe on loans to get game time he was ineligible for in England.

First came FSV Frankurt, who were followed by NEC Nijmegen, Royal Excel Mouscron, KAA Gent, Mouscron (again), 1.FSV Mainz 05 and finally Union Berlin.

After a successful spell with the latter, the Bundesliga side decided to spend around €6.5m on the towering forward, who has so far repaid their trust with eight goals in 12 games, as well as two assists.

His last outing was in a 2-1 win over his former club, Mainz 05, where he scored the two goals for his side in the game, and some weren’t overly happy about that.

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Among those was Christian Heidel, the sports director at Mainz, who revealed he tried his best to sign Awoniyi from Liverpool in the summer, using his contacts in the process.

He said, relayed by WeltFussball: “We talked about him, but I didn’t get a discount”.

That meant that Awoniyi was ‘certainly not affordable’, and it appears that despite Jürgen Klopp having some strong connections with Mainz after his seven and a half years there as a manager, Liverpool stood firm and got the price they wanted for the goalscorer, with Union Berlin eventually coughing up the required cash.