“Everyone thought it would be Harry Kane winning a league but instead it is me,” Dapo Afolayan says of being the only English striker to win a title in Germany this season, which in turn has earned him the opportunity to test himself against the England captain next season in the Bundesliga.
The former Bolton player was an influential member of St Pauli’s promotion-winning side after swapping Greater Manchester for Hamburg 18 months ago. It has been a long journey for the 26-year-old, one in which Afolayan left Chelsea’s academy aged 14 in order to get the education he wanted, leading to a degree in civil engineering while playing part-time at Loughborough University and with Solihull Moors before being plucked from the bottom of the fifth tier by West Ham. Next season he will come up against some of the continent’s best. It is a long way from playing in the ninth tier in a team of students.
“I never expected it,” Afolayan says of being a Bundesliga player. “I know how much work I have put in and how much I have sacrificed. It has always been a dream of mine and I said to myself: ‘I am going to work as hard as I can to make that dream possible.’ Luckily, I was able to do so. I don’t think there are much better feelings in football than knowing you’ve been part of something special. To get the club up into the Bundesliga is special. My head is still a bit sore from all the celebrating but it’s been really good.”
After two years at Bolton, helping them into League One, the London-born Afolayan swapped a promotion push for what looked like a 2. Bundesliga relegation battle. After Afolayan arrived in January 2023, however, St Pauli won 10 successive matches to go from fearing for survival to challenging for promotion and the momentum has continued. Afolayan contributed nine goals in 31 games this season, scoring twice and assisting another in the victory against VFL Osnabruck that secured top-flight status.
“It’s been special for many reasons,” Afolayan says. “Obviously we got promoted, won the league and great moments, but the thing I’ve enjoyed the most is the way we’ve played and gone about it this year. To be able to come here and achieve what I have in such a short space of time is a blessing and I am very, very happy.”
St Pauli is not your run-of-the-mill club. It is staunchly left-wing and has a politically active fanbase in addition to a ferocious atmosphere, legendary tifos and a tunnel daubed with “Welcome To Hell” amid a collection of neon graffiti, where the final vision before entering the pitch is a skull and crossbones.
“I saw the stadium, I saw the tunnel and it was spectacular,” Afolayan says. “I was able to do my research on St Pauli and the club, and be able to understand the historical and political importance of the club and why it is so important to people, not just in Hamburg but around the world. To be able to play for a special club like this, regardless of how it had gone here, was always going to be a privilege and I will be proud to tell my future kids and family that I played for such a special club.
“It was a good thing for me to come and learn about the football club and why it is the way it is. Once you know that, you want to give even more for the fans and more moments like this season.”
Few in the Bundesliga will enjoy the trip to the Millerntor-Stadion next season and St Pauli know home form will be critical in the top tier. “I hope everyone that comes to play us has a terrible time next season and hates it,” Afolayan says. “Our fans are unique and really special. The night games at the Millerntor are really daunting. I am so excited to play in the top league next year, home or away. It is not going to faze me.
“Big atmospheres do not worry me, I’ve played in big stadiums: in front of 60,000 at Schalke; 57,000 at the Volksparkstadion [Hamburger SV’s home]; Hertha Berlin had 60,000 in the national stadium. In these games we played our football, we performed, we never changed and we won’t change next season for anyone, either.”
Afolayan has made a number of decisions in his life and career to reach this point. Even at university he rejected the chance to join Football League clubs. Each time his calculations have paid off. “I’ve always been a big believer that life is not straightforward,” he says.
“It is not a case of going to an academy, stay for 10 years, turn pro and go into the first team – that is not how it works. I hope my journey can show a lot of young players, especially those that feel like they are struggling in an academy, that it is not the be-all and end-all, that you can keep working hard, make sacrifices elsewhere and still make it back into top-level football.”
“Sometimes when you are in a bubble you cannot see out of it, you can’t look past the situation you are in. It applies to a lot in life, a lot of people struggle mentally with being in a bubble and in being in a space that they cannot see out of. Sometimes you need people around you or someone else to show you that there are other ways and different things you can do to achieve the same results.”
Afolayan will enjoy the Bundesliga bubble but with the added knowledge that it is just part of his journey, not the final destination.
