Benjamin Pavard will be able to evolve in central defense as he has been asking for several years. To achieve his wish, the 27-year-old French international has just completed four rich seasons at Bayern Munich by joining Italy and Inter Milan.
“Benjamin Pavard is an Inter player”, confirmed the Italian club on Wednesday evening in a press release where the duration of the contract is not specified. The amount of the transfer is estimated at 30 million euros and could rise to 32 million depending on the results of Inter.
Trevoh Chalobah instead of Pavard?
Announced for several days, this transfer dragged on, Bayern not wanting to let Pavard leave without having found his replacement, who should be Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea). The reigning German champion, to whom Inter had ended up giving an ultimatum set for Tuesday 3 p.m., preferred to let his second 2018 world champion slip away, after Lucas Hernandez at PSG, rather than risk a departure without compensation. in June 2024, when his contract expires.
For several weeks, the former player of Lille (2015-2016) and Stuttgart (2016-2019) who for a time seemed very close to joining Manchester United, had made known his desire to take up a new challenge, after seven years in Germany. . “Why not discover a new country, a new culture? “, he said thus on a daily basis The Team in November 2022 before the World Cup in Qatar, ensuring that he wanted to put “the sporting issue above all”.
Inter Milan come out of an accomplished season with a third place in the league, a second consecutive title in the Italian Cup and above all a Champions League final where they posed many problems for Manchester City (1-0). The team coached by Simone Inzaghi, on the other hand, lost no less than nine central defenders in the off-season, starting with Milan Skriniar, who left PSG free, and Francesco Acerbi, holder in the C1 final who was on loan from Lazio. .
Inter’s big prize pool
Inter, which started its season with two 2-0 victories in the league, recovered no less than 120 million euros on the transfer market this summer by selling André Onana or Marcelo Brozovic, and remains “very ambitious”, as Inzaghi recently assured. With Pavard, the Italian coach now has additional ammunition in central defense and on the right side, two positions assumed by the French international (49 selections) in the club and in the France team.
In Milan, Benjamin Pavard, who changed his status by scoring a legendary goal against Argentina during the 2018 World Cup, will find his teammate in the France team Marcus Thuram, who arrived in Lombardy this summer. A reliable and rarely injured defender, he has also played more than 160 games in Bavaria (43 last season) in four seasons and amassed ten trophies, including four Bundesliga titles (2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023) and a Champions League. in 2020.