Report: Benjamin Pavard has decided to stay with Bayern Munich

In recent weeks, question marks had been raised regarding Benjamin Pavard’s future at Bayern Munich. He didn’t make the speculation any less aggressive when he chuckled and said he didn’t know what his future held after Bayern’s friendly loss to Manchester City in Green Bay, Wisconsin last weekend. However, per French outlet L’Equipe, Pavard has decided to stay a Bayern player, much to the delight of teammate and French compatriot Lucas Hernandez, who recently said he would be delighted to have Pavard stay a Bayern player.

BFW Analysis

When rumors began to surface suggesting Pavard could be potentially open to a move away from the club this summer, with Bayern’s front office also being open to that possibility, it did seem to make sense on paper. With the additions of Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt this summer, Pavard’s minutes are now in more jeopardy as Julian Nagelsmann has added depth at both center-back and right-back with the aforementioned signings. Pavard had said that he does prefer center-back over right-back, but with de Ligt added to the ranks of Dayot Upamecano and Hernandez, there’s now significantly less chance that he’ll be able to get regular minutes as a center back. Not to mention, Pavard also has competition from both Mazraoui and Josip Stanisic at right-back.

In the DFL-Supercup win over RB Leipzig, Pavard started and clocked 78 minutes before being replaced by Mazraoui, scoring Bayern’s third of five goals with a finely taken, left-footed effort in the 45th minute. Whether this was perhaps an indicator of the starting lineup against Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday to open up the Bundesliga season remains to be seen, but with the lineup he fielded in Leipzig, it would suggest that there’s more trust in Pavard right now than Mazraoui. The latter still needs time to adjust to life at Bayern and Nagelsmann’s systems.

Pavard’s current contract at Bayern runs through June 2024, but this summer oculd’ve been the most financially lucrative chance the club would’ve had to offload Pavard, seeing that his market value had taken a significant dip from last summer up until now. That could easily change with consistently strong performances this season, but that’s not a given, and a dice roll that Bayern is clearly willing to take.