Now Juventus too

The Greek international forward who signed for Benfica in the summer with his performances so far has skyrocketed his shares on the football stock market with Juventus having targeted him. According to a report by "Gazzetta dello Sport", Pavlidis is on Juventus' transfer list to strengthen the attack line ahead of the new season!

In fact, as he specifically notes, Vlahovic's departure must be considered a given by the "bianconeri", who are also examining Sporting's Swedish forward, Victor Gyokeres, whose clause is 100 million euros and is considered prohibitive.

In his maiden season with Benfica, he has so far scored 20 goals and provided 9 assists in a total of 43 appearances in all competitions, while he "shone" at Champions League level with 7 goals and 3 assists in 12 appearances!

A "Bembis" from Pylaia in Europe

Since 2004 and at the age of 6, Pavlidis, playing as a "10" until his adolescence, became a regular presence in the Mixed League in which footballers such as Zagorakis, Karagounis, Basinas, Dellas, Salpingidis had excelled. The calls were extended to the National U-16 team, before he made the big decision in the summer of 2014 which was to have a significant impact on the player who has hopefully scored six goals in this year's Champions League.

It was then that the German Bochum managed to get the "yes" of the then 15-year-old Pavlidis and his family, who considered the best possible step for his development to be... emigration to Germany, against the interest of many of the top Greek clubs.

Pavlidis: From 250 thousand euros to a record transfer

Learning the position of forward abroad and in Germany helped him lay the foundations for the subsequent "take-off", which took place outside of Germany and in the always favorable terrain for rising strikers of the Dutch championship. After four appearances with the first team of Bochum and a loan to the second team of Dortmund, Pavlidis received the first transfer of his career in the summer of 2019, heading to Willem. Just for the sum of 250 thousand euros.

Flash forward to last summer. Benfica, after months of transfer speculation and the connection of top European clubs to his case, announces the acquisition of Vangelis Pavlidis for the sum of 18 million euros, an amount that was a record for a Greek striker, breaking that of the transfer of Kostas Mitroglou to Fulham (15.2), until it was "overshadowed" by Brighton's recent deal for Stefanos Tzimas (25 million euros).

Within five years and two sums of money, his entire evolution was reflected. The 33 goals in 82 matches with Willem became 80 goals in 137 appearances with AZ Alkmaar. The 2.5 million euros of his transfer to AZ in 2021 were increased sevenfold by the Lusitanians three years later. And the 16 goals in three Conference League seasons now translate into... half a dozen goals in the "stars"!

In the same sentence as the "tall", with time as an ally It has been a dream month since mid-January for the 27-year-old striker, in which he has scored eight goals and provided three assists in Benfica's last eight games. More importantly, however, he has scored in his third consecutive UEFA Champions League game (a hat-trick against Barcelona, ​​and a goal against Juventus), taking his tally to six goals in his first nine appearances in the competition!

With this number, he has already made history as the only Greek in the Champions League era to score six times in a single campaign.

Now, his name is in the same sentence as that of the "tall", the great Antonis Antoniadis, who set the unsurpassed for five decades number of 10 goals, from the epic of Panathinaikos to "Wembley" in 1971. Each game will allow the Greek striker to attempt another step closer to the absolute record. However, his establishment in the European Cups already looks like... mission accomplished.