Alert! Mário Branco on Benfica starter's future: staying put | OneFootball

Benfica’s general football director, Mário Branco, spoke about the rumours that, over the past few weeks, have pointed to Besiktas being interested in signing Vangelis Pavlidis. The official revealed that the Greek striker wants to stay at the Luz.

"We want to keep him for next season, but then suddenly I started hearing about offers from Turkey for Pavlidis... No one has spoken to Benfica, no one. We have no offers and no contact from anyone. There are just a lot of rumours out there. Pavlidis wants to stay at Benfica and he will stay at Benfica for next season. Of course, the market is open, and we cannot control what happens, but on June 25, when we begin pre-season at Benfica, Pavlidis will be there," he said in an interview with Turkish journalist Yagız Sabuncuoglu.

The former Fenerbahçe man reinforced his view. "The Pavlidis case is very strange. It is a non-issue. If, in Kerem Akturkoglu’s transfer, I would have done things differently, in Pavlidis’ case something similar is happening, but without any basis whatsoever, because he is under contract with us until 2029, and we are very pleased with him. He has scored more than 50 goals in the last two seasons at Benfica, and he is an important player for us," he said.

Mário Branco vented that if there were talks without the Club’s knowledge, it was something that should not have happened. "There are many rumours coming from Turkey... I don’t know if they spoke to the player or the agent. If they did, they did wrong, because he is under contract with us, but no one has spoken to Benfica, and I do not believe there is any chance of Pavlidis going to Turkey next season", the Benfica official concluded.

Mário Branco’s public stance comes in the wake of rumours surrounding Vangelis Pavlidis’ immediate future, with the most recent ones suggesting that Besiktas could indeed submit Benfica a concrete offer in the region of 40 million euros for the Greek international’s transfer rights.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.