Before his move from Union Saint-Gilloise to Bayer Leverkusen, Super Eagles striker, Victor Boniface was linked to Eintracht Frankfurt, and he confirmed in an interview with German sports tabloid, Sport Bild,
The Werkself were to be given preference the following July after Boniface and Bayer crossed paths during the Europa League quarter-finals in April and felt their first affection for each other.
“After this game, I received a lot of nice messages from Leverkusen fans. That was unusual, otherwise you often get insulted by opposing fans, but now they congratulated me on the game.
“I could easily imagine moving to Bayer back then, especially since the club has a good reputation in Nigeria,” explained the 23-year-old. Everything happened very quickly afterwards.
“Yes, but Frankfurt was the first club I spoke to then with Leverkusen. Bayer then really tried extremely hard to look after me and always stuck with it. That left a strong impression on me. When I flew to Nigeria on vacation, there were delays, which were probably due to Saint-Gilloise. But I really wanted to go to Leverkusen, so I kept showing up in this red jersey to send a signal: I’m 100 percent ready for Bayer!”, clarified the offensive man, who was already on his social channels before he signed in the shirt of Bundesliga leader.
Boniface hit the jackpot with 16 goals and eight assists in 23 competitive games for Leverkusen and increased his market value from €12 million to €40 million in the Bundesliga update in October 2023, making him one of the biggest winners of last year.
Bayer had put a transfer fee of €20.5 million on the table for the striker, who is also in demand in England and Italy.
The Nigerian also confirmed there was also interest from Serie A and the Premier League: “That’s true. There were inquiries, but I told my agent that Leverkusen would be the best club for me. Players like Granit Xhaka and Jonas Hofmann were brought in before me, which also gave me a good feeling. Coming from Belgium, Leverkusen was the right choice for me,” said the right-footed player, who is currently recovering from a muscle and tendon injury in the right adductor area.