The first three Bundesliga matchdays were not only successful for the Werkself and the whole club with nine points gained but Victor Boniface can also look back to a personally successful start to the season. Signed in the summer from Union Saint-Gilloise from Belgium, the 22-year-old started all three league games – and has impressed with braces against Borussia Mönchengladbach and Darmstadt.
Boniface's achievements were also recognised beyond the borders of Germany with the first international break of the season bring a call-up from Nigeria. On his international debut, the Werkself player provided an assist and also demonstrated – now playing for his country – his ability in front of goal.
oniface was recently voted the Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for August 2023. His next personal award is exceptional: Boniface is only the second Bundesliga player ever to win both trophies in the same month. That has only prviously been achieved by the then Borussia Dortmund player Erling Haaland in January 2020 who last season was the top scorer in the Premier League with 36 goals for his club Manchester City.
The video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA) together with the German Football League (DFL) recently announced the six nominations for the vote of Bundesliga Player of the Month for August. Boniface came on top amongst notable competition with the fellow nominees being Alphonso Davies, Harry Kane (both Bayern Munich), Jonas Wind (VfL Wolfsburg), Kevin Behrens (Union Berlin) and Benjamin Henrichs (RB Leipzig).
40% of the votes came from fans, with 30% each from the 18 team captains plus a panel of pundits.
The award has been made since the 2018/19 season. Boniface's trophy is the seventh to come to Leverkusen.
All Bayer 04 players of the Month at a glance:
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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The Werkself entertain Italian club Pisa FC, newly promoted to Serie A, at the official season opener at the BayArena on Tuesday, 5 August (kick-off: 18:00 CEST). Bayer 04 fans can look forward to a varied programme of events and exciting promotions. Tickets for the season opener are on open sale with over 18,000 tickets sold so far. Read on for the latest information.
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An experienced addition to the Bayer 04 U19 coaching staff: Former Werkself player Hüzeyfe Doğan starts as assistant coach to Sergi Runge on 1 August.
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The Werkself are away to Werder Bremen on Matchday 2 in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The game at the Weserstadion will be played on Saturday, 30 August with the kick-off at 15:30 CEST. Information on match ticket sales.
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