When the 2023/24 Turkish Super Lig season get underway this weekend, the name Ibrahim Olawoyin will be on the lips of fans of newly promoted Çaykur Rizespor as they will be counting on the Nigerian star to shine according to his potentials.
Nicknamed the Nigerian Hazard, Olawoyin has been a revelation in Turkey ever since he left the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) where he got the nickname while excelling in the colours of Rangers International of Enugu.
When Rizespor needed a Messiah to spearhead their swift return to the Super Lig last term, they splashed just over €1m (one million euros) on Olawoyin who was then the poster boy of Division One side Ankara Keçiorengucu.
At that point, Keçiorengucu were 2nd on the log at the midway point of the season while Rizespor were sixth. What happened after the switch was both clubs trading places; Rizespor finishing second and claiming an automatic promotion berth while Keçiorengucu even finished lower than sixth at the end of the season.
On a personal note, Olawoyin can be said to have conquered the Turkish second Division and so should move to the next level which is the Super Lig. In his two seasons in the second tier of Turkish football league, the 25-year old who plays as an attacking midfielder and winger scored fifteen (15) goals and at least fifteen (15) assists excluding penalties won.
He is now in the big league of Turkish football and the adventure starts this weekend when Rizespor travel to the city of Adana to face Europa Conference League campaigners Adana Demirspor on Sunday.
“It was a great success in the two years I played in the Spor Toto 1 Lig especially capping it with a promotion to the Super Lig last season and winning my first trophy in Europe as a runner up,” began Olawoyin to www.aclsports.com from his base in Rize.
“Now, that was in the past. Each season, my aim is to always do better than the previous seasons. A new challenge is upon me now which I am fully prepared for,” he added.
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Ibrahim Olasunkanmi Olawoyin is not new to new challenges. In spite of his evident abilities, not many gave him the chance to blossom at the often erratic Turkish second tier, especially joining a team regarded as perennial strugglers. He faced the challenge and shone through it right from his first season.
The new challenge is from another dimension, in the mould of Rizespor who also have the same toga as Olawoyin’s former club in Ankara have – perennial strugglers. Difference being that this is the Super Lig where the big guys are, a league in which Rizespor have never finished in the Top 10 in the past decade.
To open a new vista for the club, the management has brought in respected coach Ilhan Palut who has had some respectable finishes with clubs in the Super Lig previously. Pre-season results have shown the enormity of work done as the team have grown difficult to beat under the manager who prioritises hard work.
For Olawoyin, an epitome of discipline, belief and humility, he is never fazed by such a daunting challenge as faced by Çaykur Rizespor in the coming season and he seems equipped for this fresh task along with his teammates.
“It is a challenge we are ready for; to write a new story for our club, which is to finish in a good position at the end of the season. Who knows there could be a surprise, this is football,” said the former Rangers International pearl.
With the Lagos-born Olawoyin who will don his magical Number 10 jersey for Rizespor in the new season, it is never too much to expect surprise and magic because he is indeed a star born to shine.
