My village people — Boniface opens up on failed move to Al Nassr

Super Eagles striker Victor Boniface provided some insights into his decision-making process ahead of the failed move to Al Nassr last summer.

The Bayer Leverkusen star had accepted a bid from Faris Najd last summer and was set for a big-money swap. However, the Saudi-based outfit who were also negotiating for Jhon Duran opted to sign the Colombian over Boniface. 

The decision to accept Saudi's offer came after considerable consideration from the Nigerian. The 24-year-old has had an injury-ridden career so far. In the past two seasons, he has missed 37 games due to injury. 

He also suffered two cruciate ligament tears during his time at Bodo Glimt, which saw him miss 90 matches. Boniface worried that the injuries might have taken their toll on his body, and this was factored into the decision-making process.

“I've faced a lot of injuries and I'm young, you understand,” Boniface said in the Culture League podcast. “So I think it was the last transfer window. I had like a great, um, great offer from Saudi. Like really, really great. 

“So I was thinking, like, I've been injured so many times, and if it didn't go well, blah, blah, blah. If I go to this place, if I play two, three seasons, I started calling family.

“People were already calculating the money on your behalf. So everyone, yeah, people were calling me family.”

He went on to narrate how everyone around him encouraged him to accept Saudi’s offer, including his brother, who made an incredible u-turn upon hearing the figures involved.

“So I called my elder brother. He's a footballer; he loves football. I said to him because he didn't see it. So I called him and said to him, "Bro, I have an offer to go to this Saudi team. I also had an offer to like a top team in Italy." 

“He said, "What's wrong with you? Go to Italy, you play Champions League, there is World Cup and everything." I said, "You sure?" He said, "Yes, no problem."

“So I end the call, I dropped my phone. I was still thinking. Then two minutes later he called. He said, "Ehn ehn, someone sent me something from Tunde Ednut's page that he saw the money." And he said, "You dey craze?" You say, "You dey craze?" I say why? He said, "Ah, you need to go to Saudi." So I started thinking.

Boniface then revealed the impact of the disappointment, saying that he had already begun to anticipate the move. 

“So nobody knew about this because I didn't post about this. I was just calm. So I already agreed to the offer because it's not just about me also. 

“It's about the club, because there's a lot of things going on in the football world that people think it's just about us, the football players. It's also coming from the club side. So the club also wants the money. It was like 70 million for the club, and they said yes.

“So I was ready to go. I packed my bag. I live in Cologne, so I packed my bags, we drove to Frankfurt. Because the money is a lot, to be honest, most of my designer clothes, shoes, I had already given out to my friends that were at home. So we drove.

“I was thinking like, so we drove to Frankfurt, stayed in Frankfurt. The flight was waiting, everything. I was in my hotel room thinking, praying also that, "Make this thing happen." But my village people were like…Come and go, let me see now.

“But it didn't work out. Last minute, it didn't work out. I went, I started calling my friends, "How far that LV?"