Hot on the heels of the exclusion of Taiwo Awoniyi from the Super Eagles squad for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers games, coach of Union Berlin Urs Fischer has spoken about the qualities of the forward.
Awoniyi has hit a rich vein of form but after his first call up to the senior national team of Nigeria, the forward who has 7 goals in the German Bundesliga, One in the German Cup and 4 in the UEFA Conference League wasn’t included in the team for the games against Liberia and Cape Verde respectively.
His omission by coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr is coming on the back of the decision of the coach to hand a recall to Odion Ighalo, who retired from the team in 2019 after emerging as top scorer at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Fischer who is credited for his faith in the forward for his role in convincing the club to spend heavy on the Nigerian making him their most expensive player ever when he joined from Liverpool, sees Awoniyi as one of the most important player in his team.
“Awoniyi is always working hard to improve on his skills, and also find ways to score more goals during the week.”
“I think strikers are important because they have to score goals. A lot of things are coming together at the moment for the club and that feels good.” Fischer said.
Speaking on news linking Awoniyi with a move away from the team, the coach credited the form of the striker as the reason behind the rumours as he is doing well.
“It’s normal in football that when you begin to make a name for yourself, bigger teams will come knocking at the door.”
“I am very happy for the players when they can get to the next level, but it also doesn’t help me as a coach when good players leaves but that’s sadly football.”
