Barcelona enter race for Stuttgart’s Benjamin Pavard
Stuttgart have offered the young Frenchman to the Catalans as they want to avoid selling to Bayern Munich.
Benjamin Pavard was heavily linked with Bayern Munich over the summer due to a superb first season in the Bundesliga with promoted side Stuttgart. It’s become customary for the Bavarian side to acquire the best players in the division due to their status and financial power being unmatched by any other club in the league.
The 22-year-old’s career has gone from strength to strength because within two years he has gone from playing in the German second division to being a World Cup winner. Moving to a top club in Europe is the next logical step in his career if he wants to continue progressing.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Stuttgart have offered him to Barcelona as they look to find other suitors. He would reportedly cost around €35 million next summer even though he doesn’t have a release clause as well as three years left on his contract. Therefore, it seems as though Bayern are unwilling to pay that price or Stuttgart are desperate to not sell him to the Bavarians.
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He is a versatile option because he mainly plays as a centre-back for Stuttgart and a right-back for France. During the World Cup, he showed that Didier Deschamps wasn’t playing him out of position because he was proficient at defending in wide areas and even scored a wondergoal against Argentina. Pavard was certainly comfortable in attacking areas, but his defensive ability was mostly on display for the national team due to Deschamps’ pragmatic set-up which often ceded control of possession.
Defensively he is patient and doesn’t commit unnecessarily which makes him competent in 1v1s as well as being adept at intercepting. He is composed on the ball and capable of maintaining and recycling possession, so he could deal with the possession-based demands of Barcelona’s style, although it may take him a while to adapt to the attacking requirements such as intelligent runs in behind the opposition as well as precise cut-backs and beating players in 1v1 situations.
Neither Bayern or Barcelona would offer him an easy route into the first-team because the Bavarians have Joshua Kimmich while Sergi Roberto and Nelson Semedo stand in his way for the Catalans. Kimmich was used in midfield against France by Joachim Low, but Niko Kovac seems to favour him at right-back. Roberto is the opposite in that he is a midfielder who was converted into a right-back, although he could switch back. However, Semedo would still offer significant competition to Pavard if that were to happen.
France dispatch Netherlands, 3 Barcelona players involved. dark. Next
Barcelona should definitely monitor Pavard’s situation because €35 million is a great price for him, but he isn’t a priority for the club due to the strength in that position already. Also, the midfield has plenty of depth to it already, so moving Roberto back there only reduces the playing time for youngsters such as Carles Alena and Riqui Puig, which is counter-intuitive just to fit in Pavard.