- By Oluwashina Okeleji
- Sports journalist
47 minutes ago
image source, Getty Images
image description, Victor Bonifatius' penalty in the 25th minute set Bayer Leverkusen on their way to a 5-0 win that secured the club's first Bundesliga title
A rollercoaster season for Victor Boniface reached new heights when he scored the opening goal in a 5-0 win, sealing Bayer Leverkusen's first Bundesliga title.
The result against Werder Bremen on Sunday was as impressive as the undefeated champions of a league season.
As the Leverkusen fans streamed onto the pitch to celebrate, the 23-year-old Nigerian striker had a message for them.
“We are celebrating a great success in the league, but we still have to take part in two other competitions (the Europa League and the German Cup final) and try to win for our fans,” he said.
It was fitting that Boniface started with defeat on Sunday, given how he got the ball rolling with a strong start to the season after reportedly signing for $25m (£20m) from Belgian club Union last July Saint-Gilloise had changed.
He scored eight goals in his first seven games in three different competitions and then had another purple patch until December, scoring five goals in the space of three weeks, before Christmas.
After scoring 16 goals in all competitions and developing a strong understanding with club talisman Florian Wirtz, Bonifatius' rollercoaster ride suddenly turned into a house of horrors.
“Only God knows why,” he posted on social media, before telling ` Sport Africa: “Some things will happen that you can’t explain because they are beyond your understanding.”
Europe and injuries
image source, Getty Images
image description, Boniface moved to Europe in March 2019 to join Norwegian club Bodo/Glimt
Nations Cup heartbreak was nothing new for Boniface, with the striker missing the 2019 U20 Afcon due to another late injury.
At the age of 18, just weeks after moving to Europe to join Norwegian club Bodo/Glimt, he injured his anterior cruciate ligament, which complicated his adjustment to life in Scandinavia and robbed him of his defining appearance on the international stage with the Flying Eagles.
But despite a second cruciate ligament injury, by the time he left the Eliteserien club in 2022, he had helped Glimt win two league titles.
Their triumph in 2020, in Boniface's debut season, was the first time the club had topped the list in Norway.
Then he came agonizingly close to repeating that trick in his only season in Belgium with Union Saint-Gilloise, with the club finishing second in the Pro League, behind champions Genk only on goal difference.
It would have been the club's first title since 1935.
Boniface scored 15 goals in the 2022/23 season, with particular praise for his performances and six goals in the Europa League as Union reached the quarter-finals.
The team that took them out? Bayer Leverkusen.
Leverkusen's sporting director Simon Rolfes claimed that the Germans had already been interested before Boniface's goal in the last 16 tie between the two teams, but his strike at the defeated BayArena failed to faze them.
But as people later found out, the European journey almost went off the rails before it really got going.
The loss of his mother in 2019, as well as the two cruciate ligament injuries, affected Boniface's love of the game for a while and led to alcohol abuse and even suicidal thoughts during his stay in Norway.
“I stopped watching what I ate and started partying,” he remembers.
“I didn't even drink before, but I started drinking just to feel something. I was depressed and didn’t even realize it.”
Leverkusen's African pride
image source, Getty Images
image description, The Ivorian Odilon Kossounou (left) and the Burkinabe Edmond Tapsoba (right) were regular players at Bayer Leverkusen alongside Victor Boniface (right).
From the depths of depression, Boniface's rehabilitation at Bayer Leverkusen has reached new heights – but he was not the only African to make an impression as part of Xabi Alonso's impressive squad.
Ivory Coast's Nations Cup winner Odilon Kossounou and fellow Burkina Faso centre-back Edmond Tapsoba were strong defenders, while in attack Nigeria's Nathan Tella and Moroccan Amine Adil were largely used as effective substitutes.
The quintet's success generated widespread interest across Africa, and this season's storyline is particularly intriguing.
The 120-year-old club was previously nicknamed “Neverkusen” by fans in Germany because of its propensity to find innovative new ways to fail – not least, as Leverkusen in the championship, the national cup and the Champions League runner-up in 2001-02.
But it is Boniface who has grabbed the most headlines by beating Bayern Munich's $105 million (£86 million) new signing, England captain Harry Kane, for the Bundesliga Player of the Month award for August and also received the “Rookie of the Month” award four times in a row (August, September, October and November), an award given to stars who are not older than 23 years old at the start of the league season.
Boniface is now fully recovered from his groin injury and has the chance to add two more titles to his collection. He appears to be getting back into form with two goals in his last two games.
First up is the second leg of Leverkusen's Europa League quarter-final against West Ham in London on Thursday, with the Germans leading 2-0.
The DFB Cup final on May 25th against Kaiserslautern offers a great chance to end his first season with the club on another high.
“I have already won a championship title once,” said Bonifatius as the beer flowed freely in the BayArena on Sunday. “But this is different. This is bigger.”
The burly striker's journey has been full of twists and turns so far, but there is still much more ahead of him, including a place in the newly expanded Champions League next season – although he has already been linked with a move away from Germany.
At the moment it is the fans of Leverkusen and Nigeria who are shouting about his success and it looks like Bonifatius wants to go faster.
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