(Football news) Nottingham Forest have agreed a fee worth £17.5m with Union Berlin for forward Taiwo Awoniyi ahead of their long-awaited return to the Premier League in 2022/23. Forest are keen to invest in the squad after sealing promotion via the Championship play-offs last month and Awoniyi has proven himself in German top flight level by netting 15 goals in the Bundesliga during the recently concluded 2021/22 season.

Only five players, including Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland had outscored Awoniyi over the season as he helped Union Berlin secure a strong fifth place finish this season, which was enough for entry directly into the Europa League group stage, for the their first time in the competition for 21 years. Once a deal goes ahead, Liverpool will be entitled to a ‘significant’ sell-on fee which was included in his contract when he was sold to Union Berlin. Awoniyi was under contract at Anfield until last summer when the Reds agreed a permanent transfer with Union Berlin after the end of a successful loan.

Awoniyi was at Liverpool academy from 2015 to 2021 but he did not make a single appearance for the Reds. Multiple loan moves followed in his career before finally settling with Union Berlin. The man has played for FSV Frankfurt, NEC, Mouscron, Gent and Mainz 05. He also enjoyed a temporary loan spell with Union Berlin before making a permanent move to Berlin. The challenge now will be to prove that he can play in the Premier League. He may well come up against his former employers as Liverpool will net a reported 10 percent of the transfer fee that Forest are paying to the Bundesliga outfit. Awoniyi this season scored a league goal every two games last term. However, he has been nowhere near as prolific in previous campaigns where he single handley helped Union finish in 7th last season

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