Chelsea have been looking for a star striker in the mold of Diego Costa for several years now. The technical ability mixed with the physical presence Costa brought to the game has been a missing ingredient for the Blues and they have searched high and low for a solution.
They promoted Tammy Abraham up from the academy, poached Olivier Giroud from Arsenal, splashed out way too much money for Romelu Lukaku, and recently spent a fair amount on Nicolas Jackson, all with varying degrees of success. The one thing new ownership haven’t done yet is spend big money on a proven striker but they may be willing to do so this summer according to Fichajes.net.
The Spanish outlet claims that Chelsea are willing to spend £70 million on Bayer Leverkusen star Victor Boniface. The other Victor the Blues have been linked with in the past is fellow Nigerian Victor Osimhen but he may he headed to Manchester United instead.
Boniface is two years younger than Osimhen and is not quite as prolific but he has been excellent in his two seasons with Leverkusen. In 2023-24 he had 21 goals and 9 assists in 34 appearances as Leverkusen had a nearly perfect season and this year he has 10 goals and 1 assist in 19 appearances.
The Nigerian striker has the size you look for in a front man at 6’3” and 187lb (84kg) and has plenty of technical ability as well. He is proficient in the air and is adept at taking on defenders with superb dribbling skills so he can create his own chances.
The concern around Boniface is that he may not adapt to life in the Premier League like other prolific forwards who thrived in Germany but have struggled in England. We know that the Premier League is more physically demanding than other leagues but Boniface has a solid goalscoring record against European competition with 5 goals in 8 Europa League games last year and 1 goal in 3 Champions League matches this season.
At 24-years-old he is also just young enough to be aligned with Chelsea’s recent youth only policy and has yet to hit the prime of his career. He could be the rare signing that is for the future but can have a massive impact in the present at well. If Chelsea’s new ownership finally decide to splash the cash on a proven striker that still has room to grow they could certainly do worse than Victor Boniface.