Awoniyi builds dressing room for football team of alma mater

Taiwo Awoniyi, Super Eagles striker, has built a football dressing room at the Sheikh Abdulkadir College, Ilorin, Kwara state.

The 25-year-old financed the building of toilets, offices and a pavilion at the school which he attended.

The Nottingham Forest striker also flagged off ‘Never Stop Dreaming Cup 2023’, a 26-team football tournament for academies across the state.

The competition’s winner will get N1 million, while the runners-up and the third-place team earn a sum of N700,000 and N500,000, respectively.

The tourney is expected to pull no fewer than 500 players across Kwara, with prizes for outstanding performers at the end.

On Saturday, Unicorn FA defeated Sunshine 2-0 in the competition’s opening match.

Speaking before the match, Joshua Yisa, Kwara state coordinator for school sports, praised Awoniyi for the projects, adding that he has put a “smile on the faces of many youths by sponsoring this competition”.

Awoniyi was part of the Golden Eaglets side that won the 2013 U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2015, he was signed by Liverpool but could not get hold of first-team football and endured multiple loan spells at FSV Frankfurt, NEC, Mouscron, Gent and Mainz 05.

He was shipped to Union Berlin on loan during the 2020/21 season and subsequently joined Nottingham Forest last June.

He has scored just six goals for the English club in a season hampered by a lengthy injury lay-off.