Defender Benjamin Pavard, world champion in 2018 with the French team, signed a contract with Olympique de Marseille in the last minutes of the transfer window, according to a source knowing discussions this Monday, September 1.
Pavard, 29, has been playing Inter Milan for two years after having evolved for four seasons in Bayern Munich. He has 55 selections in the French team, with which he won the 2018 World Cup and was a finalist of that of 2022.
His arrival is a prestige reinforcement for OM, who lost Adrien Rabiot, another French international, transferred this Monday to AC Milan on Monday.
Experienced and accustomed to the high level, Pavard can play in central defense or on the right flank of defense. After starting in Lille, he evolved in Stuttgart, then in Bayern Munich and Inter.
Beyond his world title with the Blues, his record is also very generous in club with four German champion titles and a title of Italian champion, as well as a Champions League won in 2020 with Bayern.
In Marseille, he will strengthen a defense that has suffered since the start of the season and which was already the weak point of the Roberto de Zerbi team last season.
There is also an important reinforcement for the duo formed by the president, Pablo Longoria, and the director of football, Medhi Benatia, while the departure of Rabiot, another French international, is badly experienced by part of the Marseille supporters.
OM, beaten twice in the first three days and only 10th in the ranking, was particularly active during this transfer window. Pavard is indeed the tenth recruit of the Marseille club, which could still formalize this Monday the arrivals of the Moroccan defender Nayef Aguerard and the Danish offensive midfielder Matt O’riley.
