Benjamin Pavard admits his heart was always set on Bayern Munich

In the beginning of January, Benjamin Pavard completed a five year, €35 million move from VfB Stuttgart to Bayern Munich, which sees that he’ll officially become a Bayern player on July 1st. The French World Cup winner has been a real stalwart for the Swabians’s back line for the past season and a half since he joined from Lille in Ligue 1, and many of Europe’s elite clubs have been trying to acquire his services.

In a recent interview with SportBild (via Bundesliga.com), Pavard admitted that he was actually annoyed with the amount of clubs that were interested in him, because he always had his heart set on Bayern:

There were a lot of clubs who were interested and, for a while, that was quite annoying. When the offer from Bayern came though, I didn’t waste a second’s thought. Bayern for me are the best club in the world. I want to further this club’s history and win plenty of titles here.

For Pavard, there was a particular point in time where he knew that Bayern would be the next club he would play for, and that moment was just before the meeting between Stuttgart an Bayern at the Allianz Arena last spring:

There was a turning point for me. When I was standing in the player’s tunnel at the Allianz Arena with Stuttgart last season, I saw the Bayern players across from me, felt the atmosphere and knew: I want to play here one day.

A native of France, born in the Northern part of the country in a city called Mauneuege, Pavard spent his youth playing for U.S Jeumont before working his way through Lille’s ranks and making it to their senior squad. Despite spending most of his early life in France, the 22-year old revealed that he’s loved his time in Germany, and more specifically, the mentality of the Bundesliga:

The question of money never factored into my decision. I love Germany, the mentality, the Bundesliga. That’s why I really wanted to stay here.

After such an impressive World Cup winning run, Pavard is also relishing the chance to play alongside his compatriots Kingsley Coman and Corentin Tolisso at Bayern. Having played so much together for the national team, they have a solid understanding between one another, which will more than likely translate to connections on the pitch with Bayern. Still, though, Pavard is also incredibly eager to join the rest of the ranks at Bayern, with such a star-studded roster:

They’re players that I know well from the national team set-up and we’ve got a great understanding. “French connection” was not the reason behind my decision to move to Munich. There are a lot of players of a similar age as me at the club, which is going through a revamp. I wanted to be a part of that.

A little hype [highlight] reel to get everyone excited:

Let us know in the comments how excited you are to see Pavard in a Bayern kit!