'My worst season in Germany'

He played excellently and scored consistently for Bodo/Glimt, Union Saint-Gilloise, and Bayer Leverkusen, despite twice tearing his knee ligaments while in Norway. He won that spectacular league title with the Pharmacists, and was once talked about as one of the best strikers in the world. But last season, after a string of injuries and several stints on the sidelines, things changed dramatically. Suddenly, Victor Boniface, once among the Bundesliga’s top center-forwards, became a player no one seemed to want. When he failed his medical at Milan this June — and especially after the photo of his damaged knee circulated online — many feared that his serious career might be over.

And even though the Nigerian forward is only 24 years old, unfortunately, those predictions are starting to look accurate. At the end of the transfer window, after it became clear Leverkusen didn’t want to keep him, Boniface went on loan to Werder Bremen, a team belonging to the lower half of the table in terms of quality. So far, he hasn’t scored a single goal, even though Bremen’s results have been better than expected. In seven matches, Boniface has registered only one assist, and has only started in the last two games.

After last weekend’s 1–1 draw with Mainz, Werder coach Horst Steffen offered mild criticism of the Nigerian.

“He tried to hold up the ball in attack, but at one point I thought — come on, you can do better. He moves around too much for my liking. I’d prefer him to stay more central. He’s not playing exactly the way I envisioned. He’s on the right path to get back to form, but it’s still a long process ahead” Steffen said.

Dodgy knee not a problem for Werder - they land Boniface!

Boniface gave an interesting interview before the Wolfsburg game. Although he insists that fans’ criticism doesn’t bother him, it’s clear that social media comments do affect him — since he follows them closely.

“I’ve reached a stage in my life where I’ve realized that most people don’t actually watch the games — they just check Livescore. Then they say, ‘This guy isn’t scoring, let’s make money on Twitter by insulting him.’ But if you know me, you know that doesn’t bother me at all” Boniface said.

The Nigerian still believes in himself:

“I try to improve every day. I think this is my worst season since coming to Germany. My first one was great, and let’s not even talk about the second — it was fantastic. Last season, I missed between 16 and 20 games, yet I was still Leverkusen’s second-best scorer. But that didn’t stop people from saying I was bad” he pointed out, before offering some optimism for future.

“If you watched the match against Union, you saw that I didn’t score or assist, but I contributed something to the team. The fans applauded me when I came off. As I said, the media spread a lot of nonsense. If I don’t score, people talk. But believe me — they don’t know anything about me. I’ve heard some things, but I stay strong. The people who know me understand that”. Since arriving in Germany, the Nigerian has played 49 Bundesliga matches, scoring 22 goals and recording 12 assists.

GERMANY BUNDESLIGA ROUND 10

Friday

22.30: (2.25) Werder (3.80) Wolfsburg (3.10)

Saturday

17.30: (4.75) Hamburger (4.35) Dortmund (1.70)

17.30: (2.70) Hoffenheim (4.00) RB Leipzig (2.45)

17.30: (1.40) Leverkusen (5.10) Heidenheim (7.25)

17.30: (14.0) Union Berlin (7.25) Bayern (1.22)

20.30: (2.25) M' gladbach (3.75) Koln (3.15)

Sunday

17.30: (1.85) Freiburg (3.50) St.Pauli (4.40)

19.30: (1.53) Stuttgart (4.60) Augsburg (5.50)

21.30: (1.85) Eintr.Frankfurt (3.90) Mainz (4.00)

****odds are subject to change