Little Messi: Nigeria’s Akinkunmi Amoo part ways with Omonia Nicosia

Amoo earned his first Super Eagles call-up as he made the main squad of the Nigerian team ahead of their 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Ghana.

Former Nigeria U-17 winger, Akinkunmi Amoo has parted ways with Cyprus Division One club, Omonia Nicosia after six months at the club, Soccernet.ng reports.

Amoo, 21, joined the Queens of Cyprus at the start of the 2023/2024 season, and made only six appearances for the club, before having his contract terminated at the start of March 2024.

The club posted his departure on their official social media page, citing personal reasons for the split alongside several issues on and off the pitch.

Amoo was born in Ibadan, Nigeria and started playing football at Brightville Football Academy before moving to Lagos to sign for Sidos F.C. and was nicknamed Little Messi because of his pace and dribbling skills,

He was a part of the Nigeria U-17 team that played the 2019 U-17 African Cup of Nations, finishing fourth, before they headed out to the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup hosted in Brazil, where they were knocked out in the round of sixteen.

His stellar performances saw him move to Swedish side, Hammarby IF in 2020 where he scored thirteen goals in forty-eight games. In January 2022, he joined fifteen-time Denmark Champions, F.C. Copenhagen, in a deal worth around €4.4 million.

A knee injury knocked him out of the Byens Hold team for ten months, before news of a sexual assault surfaced, and the former Golden Eaglet was found guilty and sentenced to a one-year jail term.

The young winger made his way to Omonia Nicosia in the summer of 2023, signing a three-year contract. His contract was terminated after six months, marking an unexpected twist in his burgeoning career.