THE BREAKDOWN: Tani Oluwaseyi showing key signs of growth in red-hot start to 2025

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It’s been a great start to 2025 for Tani Oluwaseyi, who has quickly hit the ground running for Minnesota United this season. 

Having had a breakout year for club and country in 2024, he appears to have taken a big step forward in 2025, and that’s been reflected in his performances in recent matches. 

After starting the year with just one assist and no goals in his first three matches of the 2025 MLS season, he’s caught fire as of late, scoring five goals in his last three games, finding braces against Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake before adding another goal in his most recent match against New York City FC. 

Then, between his braces against SKC and RSL, he even found a way to open his CanMNT account, as he scored his first-ever Canada goal in their win over the USMNT in the Concacaf Nations League third-place game at the end of March, doing so in his 11th cap. 

Safe to say, it’s been a great run for Oluwaseyi, who had a lot to prove heading into this year, especially from a CanMNT perspective. Having done well to establish himself as a regular CanMNT call-up, his seat was starting to get hot after the commitment of dual-nationals Promise David and Daniel Jebbison earlier this year, which made an already-crowded striker pool as competitive as ever. 

Especially after Oluwaseyi went 14 games without scoring in all competitions for Minnesota to end 2024, having started the year with eight goals in his first 16 matches, it shows why the pressure was on him to start this year strong. 

Now, he’s found his feet again and appears to have taken a step forward, which is encouraging given what he showed in 2024. 

There, he was one of the best goalscorers in MLS, period, especially when you factor in that he wasn’t even a full-time starter for Minnesota. His eight goals in MLS play tied him for 48th in the league, sitting with the likes of Hany Mukhtar, Diego Luna, Federico Bernardeschi, Leo Campana, Christian Ramirez and Raul Ruidiaz, which is not bad company at all.

Given that he scored those eight goals despite making only 10 starts and playing just 1084 minutes, with a large chunk of those goals coming in games where he came off the bench, that’s impressive. Plus, given that he didn’t take penalties, that’s also another factor to consider - he jumped up to 41st in MLS’s goal charts when factoring in non-penalty goals. 

Speaking of his limited role, however, it makes it interesting to rank him by goals per 90 minutes, which gives an idea of how remarkable he truly was despite playing less than a lot of his peers. 

When doing that for MLS players in 2024 (via FBRef), filtering out those who played 450 minutes or less, Oluwaseyi jumped up into a tie for eighth with 0.7 goals per 90. Then, when you tweak the filter to look at non-penalty goals, he jumped up to fifth, as there were only four players who scored more non-penalty goals per 90 than Oluwaseyi, who had 0.7 goals per 90 minutes in 2024 - Lionel Messi, Alonso Martínez, Luis Suárez and David Martínez. 

Some of the players who were tied with Oluwaseyi at 0.7 goals, by the way? Cucho Hernandez, Christian Benteke and Karol Świderski, an elite group of peers. 

What is the most impressive part of all of that? Oluwaseyi got those numbers sustainably, too, as he also averaged 0.7 non-penalty xG per 90 in 2024, which was second in the league, only behind Świderski, showing that his goals came from his ability to get into good positions instead of wild finishing luck, which is the best skill for a striker to have.

When seeing that, however, it leads to an important question - how does that compare to Oluwaseyi’s 2025 numbers? 

It’s early, but so far the signs are positive - per FBRef, he has so far averaged 0.7 non-penalty xG per 90 in 2025, good for 4th in the league, but is now averaging 1 goal per 90 minutes, which is second in the league, only behind the red-hot Tai Baribo in that category.

As seen when comparing his 2024 numbers (in blue) to his 2025 numbers (in red), Oluwaseyi has improved in a lot of key categories, including his actual goals per 90 minutes (via FBReF)

Plus, in terms of raw numbers, he’s now up to second in the league in goals as of writing, too, showing that he’s making the most of an elevated role in 2025, already halfway to matching the 10 starts he got last season with five so far this year. 

Sticking with his goals, however, it’s interesting to peel back the hood and see how he’s scoring those goals. As seen by his xG numbers, he gets to the right positions on the field, but how does he get there? 

The answer is that he combines excellent movement with good finishing, doing a good job of getting on the end of crosses from his teammates. Because of that, when you look at the 13 goals he’s scored for Minnesota, he’s scored nine of them on his first touch, showing his ability to get into dangerous spots and finish them quickly and decisively.

This might just be the stereotypical Oluwaseyi goal. He uses his pace to keep up with the attack, times his run perfectly to stay onside and open at the back post, and then finishes with his first-touch (via MLS/Apple TV)

In terms of those runs, however, it’s worth noting that while he has great pace - he’s also scored a few breakaways - he also seems to have a knack for making dangerous late runs into the box, knowing when to dart toward the back post or drop back into a soft spot around the penalty area to get open.

These goals might not steal the highlight reels, but it's exactly how the best strikers score - Oluwaseyi does well to stay on his toes, never stops moving inside of the box, and then is alert to the ball that comes across to him for the tap-in (via MLS/Apple TV)

Often, strikers with his pace might over-rely on that attribute, but his movement shows that he’s calculated with his runs, a sign of his strong attacking intelligence, which can often distinguish certain strikers from their peers.

Another sign of good striker movement - Oluwaseyi finds the soft spot between the RSL centre backs and gets off a header to score. Great movement from him here (via MLS/Apple TV)

Interestingly, he’s shown to be quite a versatile finisher, too - he’s scored seven of his goals with his preferred foot, his left, but also has four on his right and two with his head, showing that he is comfortable finishing chances in different ways, as well.

Right foot? No problem for Oluwaseyi, who slots home first-time with his right foot, catching the goalkeeper off-guard with his finish (via MLS/Apple TV)

There’s no doubt that he prefers to take shots on his left foot, making it fitting that he scored his first Canada goal on a first-time left-footed strike inside of the box, but he won’t alter his runs to only seek those chances - he tries to pop out where the space is. 

Oluwaseyi's first goal for Canada - a typical poacher's goal. It falls to him, and he is alert and finishes quickly. Plus, even if the bounce was lucky, look at his movement before the goal - he stays on his toes, and is constantly moving, which allows him to escape from the defenders (via TSN/OneSoccer)

Given that he’s now averaging 3.25 shots per 90 minutes in 2025 after averaging 2.41 shots per 90 in 2024 (per WyScout) shows that he’s finding more and more different ways to get shots off in and around the box.

A different kind of Oluwaseyi goal - he gets running, takes a few touches, and buries home. Even if he prefers scoring with his first touch, he has a few of these in his locker (via MLS/Apple TV)

Otherwise, a big attribute that has made him stand out for Canadian head coach Jesse Marsch has been his pressing, who likes his strikers to defend from the front. Oluwaseyi has done a good job of that for Minnesota, averaging 2.67 recoveries per 90 minutes in 2024 (with 65% of them coming in the final third), and has improved those numbers to begin 2025, where he’s averaging 3.43 recoveries per 90 minutes (with 68.4% of them coming in the final third), (numbers via WyScout). 

For context, Jonathan David, who is regarded as a strong defensive striker, is averaging 2.54 recoveries per 90 minutes in Ligue 1 (with 68.8% of them coming in the final third), showing that Oluwaseyi’s numbers are quite solid. 

Yet, that’s why Marsch hasn’t been shy in working with him, because while his ability to stretch defences and score goals is impressive, it’s the work that he puts in off the ball that can be quite attractive for a Canadian side that wants to press high and defend from the front.

At the same time, for all of Oluwaseyi’s strong stand-out attributes, it’s worth noting that there are some areas of his game that he’s looking to polish. 

First, there is his passing, as he’s only averaged 12.77 passes per 90 at a clip of 63% in his MLS career (per WyScout), as he can sometimes be sloppy in possession. Yes, he isn’t as involved in possession as he’s stretching the pitch and looking to complete his team’s final actions, but it would add another layer to his game and give defenders to think about if he was able to keep the ball at a higher rate. 

Otherwise, he’s also only won aerial duels at a rate of 34.2% in his MLS career (per WyScout), which is a surprising number given that he’s listed at 6 '3". He’s showing improvement in that regard, already up to 41.9% in 2025, but he’ll want to push that number closer to 50%, which will come as he gets stronger and continues to study that side of his game. 

For what it’s worth, though, those things can be worked on. What is harder to work on for strikers is movement, finishing and speed, which is why it’s so encouraging to see Oluwaseyi’s proficiency in those areas.

An Oluwaseyi goal from 2024 that showcases his speed and finishing, showing that he can be a threat running in behind, too (via MLS/Apple TV)

Plus, it’s important to remember that while he’s 24 and about to turn 25 next month, he’s a late bloomer, with this only being his second full MLS season and fourth season as a professional. 

Before he even became a regular last year at 23 years of age, he only played 10 games in MLS Next Pro in 2022 after getting drafted earlier that year, before truly finding his feet as a professional in 2023 when he was loaned to USL Championship side San Antonio FC, where he scored 17 goals and added seven assists in 27 games. 

Because of that, expect him to continue to polish his game going forward, as he looks to continue his incredible rise as a late bloomer, making up for lost time. 

Certainly, Marsch will continue to watch him, as he is looking for any striker not named Jonathan David to step up and help score goals for this Canadian team. Given that Oluwaseyi’s goal for Canada last month was only the second one scored by a striker that wasn’t J.David under Marsch’s tenure (the other being Cyle Larin against Panama last October), it shows how important it’ll be for Canada’s attack to find another source of goals at the position, with Canada’s wide players like Jacob Shaffelburg proving to be a more consistent outlet at the moment. 

Ideally, Canada will be able to rely on multiple sources in games, from J.David, to Shaffelburg and strikers such as Oluwaseyi, P. David, Jebbison and others, but the battle at the #9 position remains wide-open. 

If Oluwaseyi stays hot, however, look for him to try and take an inside track in that race ahead of the Gold Cup, which will likely prove to be a huge audition for those in that striker race. 

As he looks to cement his claim to be in Canada’s World Cup squad next summer, those are the moments where he’ll want to step up, showing why Marsch has been so pleased with his play under his tutelage over the last 12 months. 

Until then, however, if he’s to earn that spot, and perhaps get a move to a higher level, all Oluwaseyi can do is continue to bang the goals in for Minnesota, so look for him to build off this recent positive stretch of play for his club team in the weeks to come, helping sustain this excellent start to 2025. 

Numbers via FBRef and WyScout, clips via MLS and OneSoccer.