Manchester United have reportedly ‘indicated’ that Bayern Munich star Benjamin Pavard is on ‘their recruitment list’ this summer.
Pavard has made 119 appearances for the Bundesliga giants since his £31.5m move from Stuttgart in the summer of 2019, but is said to currently be reflecting on his future.
READ MORE: No sign of Liverpool or Manchester City in top 10 net spenders since 2020
L’Equipe (via Sport Witness) claim the 26-year-old wants to play more regularly as a central defender having spent much of his time with Bayern playing at right-back and right wing-back.
Pavard is of interest to a number of clubs, with Chelsea linked in the last few days, as well as Atletico Madrid and Juventus.
And now it’s claimed United ‘have indicated’ that the France international is on ‘their recruitment list’ this summer.
The report also claims a renewal is possible for Pavard, whose current deal expires in the summer of 2024.
There are as yet no bids on the table, but should an interested party want to lure Pavard away from Bayern it’s thought they would need to offer around £30m for his services.
It’s unlikely Old Trafford would be of interest to Pavard if he has a desire to play in central defence given Erik ten Hag’s wealth of options in that area.
The club has already signed Lisandro Martinez to strengthen the defence this summer, with Ten Hag revealing the key attributes of the ‘warrior’ he worked with at Ajax.
“He’s a warrior and I think the fans will admire him. He has an attitude, fighting spirit,” Ten Hag said. “He brings aggressiveness in the game, in a good way. I think we need that. But also, he’s also skilful and he can deal with the ball and he’s left-footed.”
“I think it’s important, yeah,” the manager continued when asked if already being familiar with his methods will help Martinez adapt to the Premier League. “I think the Premier League is high intensity, lots of challenges. We need such players [with fighting spirit].
“Certain ideas, he knows them. That is an advantage, clearly. But also he has to adapt, to a new country, a new club, new team-mates. So also a lot of things will be different.”