Taiwo Awoniyi made headlines with his goal celebration after scoring in Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 win over 10-man West Ham United in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
The Nigeria international was making his fifth appearance since returning from a groin injury that kept him out for two months.
He opened the scoring against West Ham by latching on to Nicolas Dominguez’s pass before showing sheer strength to evade his marker, turn and bury the ball into the bottom right corner of the net. It was his second goal since coming back from injury, his first coming on his return in a 2-1 home loss to Arsenal last month.
Awoniyi took off his shirt in celebration with a religious text in Yoruba that read: “Kilen f’olorunpe” which translates to “What do you use to call God.”
The remaining English text on his shirt read: “In all darkness time, you became the light, Yeshua.” The Bible verse of Ecclesiastes 12:13 was also boldly written.
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Awoniyi has a well-documented history of being religious, with the bulk of his social media posts reflecting his strong Christian faith. He took to Instagram after the victory over West Ham posting a picture of the shirt with a caption on the post reading: “We have come this far by Grace. Forever the Greatest.”
Awoniyi now has six Premier League goals for the season and is four goals shy of his tally from last season when he joined from Union Berlin in the summer.
