At his first appearance in the Leverkusen stadium in a Bayer shirt, the new center forward Victor Boniface not only impressed fans and teammates. The attacker, on the other hand, was rather reluctant to comment on comparisons to his compatriot Victor Osimhen from SSC Napoli.
Ovations for the substitution: Victor Boniface after his successful home debut. IMAGO/RHR photo
At first he “only” played well: with a well-timed pass to Amine Adli at the right moment, Victor Boniface initiated Bayer’s first big chance in the 4-0 win against West Ham United. Later, on the right wing, kept calm and overview and completed the action with a clever pass to the edge of the box instead of running blindly into two English defenders.
Two scenes that showed that the Union Saint-Gilloise attacker is a forward with game intelligence. But not the scenes that sent the arena into ecstasy. This happened when the Nigerian smashed the bouncing ball into the far corner from a tight angle to make it 3-0.
A hit that electrified the fans, who then repeatedly gave Boniface applause and later even chants. “He had a couple of good moves and the spectators seem to like his style,” said managing director Simon Rolfes with satisfaction.
The 22-year-old, who had already forced Thilo Kehrer’s own goal to make it 2-0 after a pass from Jonas Hofmann and took the penalty to make it 4-0 after the break, is already well on the way to becoming the crowd’s favourite. Even if Conference League winners West Ham United seemed very sluggish that day and defended rather poorly, the 16 million euro transfer fee for Boniface seems to have been well invested.
The physical power, the understanding of the game, the speed and the goal threat that he exudes made the Bayer 04 fans enthusiastic. “You also heard how the fans took him directly into their hearts,” Hofmann stated.
Even if Boniface didn’t bring one or two situations down consistently and in time, he knew how to fully convince. “It’s important for him that he had a good connection to midfield,” analyzed Rolfes. “If he completed one or the other action more purposefully, he would have scored another goal.”
Then the euphoria around Boniface would have been even greater, who fixed balls well in front and not only combined well with the offensive trio behind him, Florian Wirtz, Amine Adli and Jonas Hofmann. A performance that even led to comparisons being made with Naples’ top scorer Victor Osimhen.
The former Wolfsburg player is also a Nigerian, also an assertive nine who, like Boniface, made it into one of the top five leagues via a club in Belgium, RSC Chaleroi, first to Lille OSC and then to Napoli. “There are a lot of similarities. He’s a good player who I can obviously learn a lot from,” said Boniface rather shyly. Previously on the pitch, however, he had discarded any reticence.
2023-08-06 15:28:42
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