Super Eagles of Nigeria striker, Victor Boniface has revealed how his coach at Bayer Leverkusen, Xabi Alonso, has been helping him to improve at the club.
Victor Boniface joined Bayer Leverkusen from Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium for a transfer fee worth €20.50 million on July 22, 2023.
Since he arrived at the club, he has been unstoppable as he recorded 18 goals and provided 10 assists in 29 games in all competitions. Despite his injury setback between January and March, he is still Bayer Leverkusen’s highest goalscorer.
With his help, Bayer Leverkusen have won their first Bundesliga title and they are on the verge of winning two more titles – Europa League and DFB-POKAL.
In an interview with AFP, Victor Boniface revealed that coach Xabi Alonso is always better than his players during training and that often pushes him to improve.
“Imagine you’re training and your coach is doing better than you,” Boniface said.
“Then you want to step up your game.”
“For him to be involved in training gives us a boost,” Boniface said of Alonso, who “has won everything that can be won in football.”
“Sometimes he tells me of players he played with, with similar abilities to me. He tries to improve me in my weakest areas.”
On how he took his almost three months injury which forced him to miss the 2023 AFCON in which the Super Eagles finished second, Victor Boniface said, “It was really difficult when I got injured. When I got injured, in my head I said ‘OK, I’m missing AFCON, I’m going to miss a lot of games for Leverkusen.’”
“During that time it was difficult for me, but I have my teammates and a club which takes care of me.
“It’s difficult but at the same time, it’s just football. There are good moments and bad — it’s just how you take it.”