Under-23 national team, Olympic Eagles’ former invitee, Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure has become the ninth African player at Watford of England, following confirmation of his switch to The Hornets from Club Brugge of Belgium.
Bonaventure is also poised to become Watford’s second attacking signing of the summer, as his deal comes behind that of Ashley Fletcher, who will join The Hornets as a free agent on July 1, when his contract with Middlesbrough expires.
Before now, Bonaventure had been on loan from Brugge at FC Cologne of Germany and, though that stint did not turn out to be a fertile as expected, the twice-capped senior international has sealed a shock move to Vicarage Road.
In doing so, Bonaventure becomes the fourth Nigerian player currently in The Hornets’ ranks, behind William Troost-Ekong, Tom Dele-Bashiru, Isaac Succes and Joseph Hungbo, as well as the ninth African in Xisco Munoz’s squad, along with Adam Masina (Morocco), Ismaïla Sarr (Senegal), Imran Louza (Morocco) and Kwadwo Baah (Ghana).
Megasportsarena.com reports that, during his time at Club Brugge, Bonaventure made a name for himself when he scored a brace away to Real Madrid during a 2-2 draw for his side two seasons ago in the UEFA Champions League.
In the process, Bonaventure became the third Nigerian to score against Los Blancos in the European club competition, following after Atanda Yusuf Ayila and James Obiorah.
As he prepares for his first season with The Hornets, Bonaventure will aim for a better run than what he experienced at Brugge, where several off-field ioncidents caused an implosion to his previous heroic status in the squad.
He eventually lost his relevance in the squad when he failed to tie down a regular place with team from Jan Breydel Stadium and the 23-year-old was loaned to Cologne for the past campaign.
Sadly, his woes continued in Germany, as he struggled to get regular playing time at the German Bundesliga outfit and he ended up playing only nine games in the trop-flight and got no goals to his name.
Bonaventure will now hope to put all that behind him and concentrating on towing the line of excellence that has been set by other African players at Watford, who went public with confirmation of his arrival on Monday.
The club that gave Odion Jude Ighalo a massive leap in England disclose at length: “An agreement with Club Brugge has been reached for the transfer of exciting young forward Emmanuel Dennis, Watford FC is delighted to confirm.
“The 23-year-old Nigerian spent part of last season on loan in Germany’s Bundesliga with 1. FC Koln, having first joined the Belgian top-flight side in the summer of 2017.
“A scorer of 27 goals in just over 90 club appearances for Brugge, he has featured in both the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League.
“The Hornets are currently finalising personal terms with the pacy striker – capped twice by Nigeria so far – who began his professional career with some experience as a teenager in the Ukrainian Premier League with Zorya Luhansk.”
