By Daily Sports Nigeria on September 5, 2023

Nigerian striker, Victor Boniface, has been shortlisted for the Rookie of the Month award in the Bundesliga following his blistering start to his career at Bayer Leverkusen, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

According to the organisers, for a player to be qualified for the award, he must be younger than 23 on matchday 1 of his debut new season in the Bundesliga.

Boniface joined Bayer Leverkusen this summer from Belgium club Union Saint-Gilloise and has scored four goals and added two assists in only three league games in Germany.

The 22-year-old bagged a brace last Saturday with his first goal selected among the Bundesliga’s top five goals of matchday three.

Boniface, who earned his first international call-up to the Super Eagles squad for Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sao Tome, will face stiff competition from German-Nigerian goalkeeper Noah Atubolu who plays for SC Freiburg and RB Leipzig winger Xavi Simons.

While Atubolu has kept one clean sheet in three appearances for Freiburg, Simons has two goals and three assists in only three Bundesliga games this term.

Boniface’s performance on matchday 3 in the Bundesliga has also earned him the second-best rating in  Europe’s top five leagues.

According to renowned statistical website, Whoscored, the Nigerian forward was rated 9.7 after his brilliant display against Darmstadt last Saturday.

Boniface scored two goals – for the second successive Bundesliga game – and added an assist as Bayer Leverkusen maintained their perfect start to the season – and moved top for the time being – with a 5-1 win over Darmstadt at the BayArena last Saturday.

According to Whoscored only Brighton’s Evan Ferguson 10.0 rating bettered Boniface’s score across the leagues in England, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.

Barcelona’s Jules Kounde and Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich were rated 8.8 while Manchester City’s Nathan Ake earned 7.9.

Unsurprisingly, the Nigerian has come in for praise, with Koln coach Steffen Baumgart telling Sport Bild that he would have signed Boniface over Harry Kane were he in charge at Bayern Munchen.

World Cup winner with Germany, Lothar Matthäus, also mentioned Leverkusen’s new star and Kane in the same breath, saying, “We’ll see plenty of goals from him (Boniface) this term – I can even see him competing with Kane for the top scorer crown.”

Source Punch Ng

Posted September 5, 2023

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