Who is Victor Boniface – Leverkusen star still looks to unlock full potential

Wanted by West Ham? 

There is no doubt that Victor Boniface has been hugely important for Bayer Leverkusen’s title push in the Bundesliga this season. Signed for €20.5 million from Union Saint-Gilloise this summer, Boniface took the league by storm, scoring ten goals and seven assists in his first 16 Bundesliga games. Slated to represent Nigeria at the Africa Cup this month, Boniface suffered an injury that will keep him out until April. 

That injury has been a significant loss to Leverkusen and eliminated even the slimmest chance for a winter transfer, with West Ham United showing interest in the striker. Leverkusen were always unlikely to sell the forward anyhow, but the transfer rumors are a manifestation of the quick rise of the 23-year-old striker. With the immediate impact in the Bundesliga and the transfer rumors in mind, it isn’t surprising that Boniface’s market value has exploded in recent months from €12m to €40m, making him one of the most valuable players in the German topflight. 

Indeed, a glimpse in the Transfermarkt database underlines Boniface’s importance for Leverkusen. Despite missing the last two games with an injury, Boniface is currently fourth in Bundesliga goalscoring behind only Harry Kane (22 goals), Serhou Guirassy (17 goals), and Loïs Openda (12 goals). In terms of scorer points (goals + assists), only Kane (22 goals and five assists), Guirassy (17 goals and one assist), and Leroy Sané (eight goals and ten assists) rank ahead of Boniface’s ten goals and seven assists. 

Leverkusen star Victor Boniface – More than a pure goalscorer 

That last statistic, in fact, underlines what makes Boniface such an intriguing prospect. Strong and agile, Boniface has been a very important player for Leverkusen’s link-up play, not only scoring goals but also providing room for the likes of Alejandro Grimaldo (seven goals), Florian Wirtz and Jonas Hofmann (both five goals) to explore and score from. Numbers from the stat site Wyscout underline that observation. Boniface is fourth in the Bundesliga with 5.84 touches per 90 minutes inside the penalty box and fifth with 102 one-on-one situations. 

Even though he has scored ten goals, one point of criticism could be Boniface’s overall goal production. According to Wyscout, Boniface leads the league with 4.45 shots on goal but is only 24th with 40.3% shots on target. That indicates that Boniface could be more efficient in the attack despite an xG of 10.45, which is only slightly higher than the ten goals he scored. In fact, Bundesliga.com ranks Boniface in 363rd place in the entire league with a shot efficiency of -3.7—in comparison, top goalscorers Kane ranks first with a shot efficiency of +6.3 and Guirassy second with a shot efficiency of +4.8. 

In other words, despite his red-hot start in the Bundesliga, there is still significant room to grow for Boniface to become a more efficient goalscorer. But Leverkusen were fully aware that they were signing a project when they brought on Boniface in the summer. “Over the long term, we now have a strong and versatile striker with potential in our ranks,” Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes said after the transfer was made official in the summer. Part of that potential includes being a more efficient striker, a scary thought given the amount of goals the Nigerian has already scored in the Bundesliga.

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