"I say to people there are a lot of things that are bigger than football." That's Taiwo Awoniyi, standing in a cap and gown at the PFA Business School graduation, collecting his third academic qualification — a diploma to go alongside his business management degree. Not bad for a man who was in a medically induced coma just over a year ago.
The 29-year-old striker, now at Coventry City after leaving Nottingham Forest this summer, has been studying throughout his entire playing career. The motivation? A promise he made to his father Solomon, who nearly blocked his path into football altogether due to his strict views on education.
"I made a promise to my dad that if I played football, I would keep studying," Awoniyi said. "That is what I've done and I am proud of it."
Context makes this land harder
In May 2025, Awoniyi suffered one of the more alarming injuries English football has seen in recent years. Playing for Forest against Leicester City, he ruptured an intestine in a collision with a goalpost and was placed in a medically induced coma. He's referenced the "ups and downs" of his career — that's the kind of understatement only someone who has genuinely been through it can pull off.
That he returned to football, moved to Coventry, and is still part of Nigeria's squad for their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign is one thing. That he also found time to complete another qualification through all of it says something about how he's wired.
A different kind of footballer
The PFA Business School runs its courses around fixtures and training — seminars are scheduled to avoid clashes, and players can study independently. Awoniyi's point is blunter than the programme's marketing: footballers finish training early, evenings exist, and not enough players use them.
"It's all about how willing you are to do it," he said. Hard to argue.
His journey — from the Imperial Soccer Academy to Liverpool, through German football with Union Berlin, to the Premier League and now the Championship — has never followed a straight line. Neither has the education. But the promise held.
