Taiwo Awoniyi has revealed that the path to becoming a striker was far from straightforward, admitting that his early football years were spent bouncing between positions before he finally settled on the one that has defined his career, Footynaija.com reports.
The 28-year-old Ilorin-born forward, who has scored 21 goals in 98 appearances for Nottingham Forest since joining from Union Berlin in 2022, spoke with candour about the positional uncertainty of his formative years.
“When I was younger, I always played in different positions,” he said in an interview with Nottingham Forest.
“I started in defence before moving into midfield and eventually to striker.”
The journey did not follow any script. At one trial, a shortage of available players forced him to operate as a number ten and a centre forward on the same day, and he scored goals in both roles.
“Since then I always wanted to be a centre forward,” he said.
But there was always a fallback. Even as his preference for the striker role grew stronger, Awoniyi held some affection for the position he had started in.
“Before being a forward, I wanted to be a centre back,” he admitted.
“I always enjoyed playing there with my friends, but further down the line I wanted to be a forward and I’ve played there ever since.”
A coach at one of his trials spotted something in him that went beyond positional preference, telling him he was smart enough to play anywhere.
That day, with a defender short, he was asked to fill in at the back, and by his own admission, he did well enough to earn the compliment.
“After that, I always thought that if I couldn’t be a forward, I would be a defender,” he said.
The Super Eagles striker has spoken previously about the difficulties of his early life in Ilorin, making boots himself from leftover materials and travelling an hour each way to training every day.
That the boy who grew up uncertain of where on the pitch he belonged is now one of Nottingham Forest’s most reliable centre forward speaks to the clarity of purpose he eventually found.
Forest face FC Porto in the Europa League Quarter Final on April 9, and Awoniyi will be hoping a run of games between now and then helps him carry that clarity into the business end of the season.
