\n<\/p>\n
Nations Cup heartbreak was nothing new for Boniface, with the striker having missed out on 2019’s Under-20 Afcon because of another late injury.<\/p>\n
Aged 18, he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament just weeks after moving to Europe to join Norwegian club Bodo\/Glimt, complicating his adaptation to life in Scandinavia as well as robbing him of that formative appearance on the international stage with the Flying Eagles.<\/p>\n
However, despite a second ACL injury, by the time he left the Eliteserien club in 2022 he had played a part in helping Glimt win two league titles.<\/p>\n
Their 2020 triumph, in Boniface’s debut season, was the first time the club had ever finished top of the pile in Norway.<\/p>\n
Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
He then came agonisingly close to repeating the trick in his sole season in Belgium with Union Saint-Gilloise, with the club finishing second in the Pro League, behind champions Genk only on goal difference.<\/p>\n
It would have been the club’s first title since 1935.<\/p>\n
Boniface netted 15 times during that 2022-23 season, drawing particular praise for his performances and six goals in the Europa League as Union reached the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
The team that knocked them out? Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n
Leverkusen’s sporting director Simon Rolfes claimed the Germans were already interested before Boniface’s goal in the last-eight tie between the sides, but his strike in a losing cause at the BayArena did nothing to put them off.<\/p>\n
But as people later found out, the European ride nearly went off the rails before it really built up speed.<\/p>\n
The loss of his mother in 2019, as well as the two ACL injuries, damaged Boniface’s love of the game for a while, leading to alcohol abuse and even suicidal thoughts for a time while he was in Norway.<\/p>\n
“I stopped paying attention to my diet and started partying,” he recalled.<\/p>\n
“I was not even a drinker before then but I started drinking just to feel something. I was depressed and didn’t even realise it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n