St. Pauli prepare to shop disaffected, bible-quoting English striker Oladapo Afolayan | OneFootball

English striker Oladapo Afolayan – who does still maintain an estimated €3m market worth – looks to be on the move away from his Bundesliga club St. Pauli during the coming January transfer period. Afolayan joined Hamburg’s Kiezkicker in January 2023 from Bolton Wanderers. The contract he signed nearly three years ago is due to expire at the end of the current season. 

Afolayan scored 12 2. Bundesliga goals for St. Pauli over the course of 18 months and – with two top flight goals through nine matchdays last season – appeared to be ready for the Bundesliga level. The Harrow-native nevertheless stumbled along with the rest of his team’s attack and would score only one more goal over the course of the entire season. 

Afolayan had some harsh words for head coach Alexander Blessin and the club in general after the final matchday last season. While everyone else associated with the team celebrated another season of Bundesliga football, Afolayan railed against his lack of playing time whilst speaking in the mixed zone. 

“To be honest, the last six months have been shitty,” Afolayan said at the time. “I didn’t feel like I was getting the playing time I deserved. And when I did play, I wasn’t valued as much as I should have been. I think we should try to win games and not just avoid losing them. We achieved the bare minimum. My goal was to finish in 14th place or higher.

“I still have a year left on my contract, but of course I’m not happy with how things are going here,” Afolayan added. “We’ll have serious talks and see what happens. A lot is going to change anyway.“

Afolayan made six largely irrelevant relief appearances under Blessin in the league this season before earning his first start against Borussia Mönchengladbach on matchday nine at the beginning of November. The 28-year-old’s performance was so poor that Blessin yanked him at the half. After remaining unused off the bench against Freiburg on matchday ten, Blessin has declined to nominate Afolayan at all in two league and one subsequent cup match. 

The fact that Swedish attacker Erik Ahlstrand (five meaningless relief appearances last season) is dressing ahead of Afolayan speaks volumes about how lowly the club values him. Even in the midst of a nine-game-losing streak, the Englishman isn’t being considered. Afolayan isn’t doing himself any real favors with his recent social media posts. Just as is the case with squad captain Jackson Irvine, Blessin doesn’t appear especially thrilled with the distraction.

Afolayan posted a picture himself in training on his instagram feed with a bible verse attacked. The verse (Isiah 54:17) makes reference to the verbal persecution and amounts to a case of disturbing self-righteous victimhood. St. Pauli will likely be happy to pocket what cash they still can for their striker in a few weeks.

GGFN | Peter Weis