Head coach of Italian Serie A side Lazio Maurizio Sarri has detailed his plans for the summer transfer window and will go all out to strengthen the attack of the team, OwnGoalNigeria.com understands.
2nd placed Lazio has so far scored just 55 goals, the lowest among teams in the top 5 in the league. 33 year old Ciro Immobile is the team’s leading scorer with just 12 goals this season with two matches left to play.
In a bid to find a solution to the issue, the coach has identified Nigerian striker Victor Boniface of Belgium side Union Saint-Gilloise as his prime target in the summer transfer window, according to several reports in the Italian press.
22 year old Boniface joined the Belgium side in the summer from Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt for a fee of around €2m on a deal that will run till the summer of 2026. The club also hold an option of extending his deal by a year.
Despite the length of his contract, they are open to letting him leave for a fee widely believed to be in the region of €20m but potentially rising to €30m, after his fantastic return of 22 goals and 11 assists in 53 games this season.
Preliminary talks has been held by all parties involved with the CEO of Union Saint-Gilloise Philippe Bormans confirming that there is little or no chance of the player remaining at the club beyond this summer.
“Whether there is even one percent chance that Boniface will stay? Never say never, but it seems very unlikely to me. I can no longer count the interested clubs that are concrete on two hands,” Bormans told Belgium newspaper Het Belang van Limburg.
Napoli, AC Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt and Nice in France are the other teams reportedly interested in signing the forward, who is prime to be handed his first call up to the senior national team of Nigeria when they convene for the final games in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June.
Daniel Martins
