Everything seemed set for a great World Cup tournament for Bayern defender Benjamin Pavard with France. But so far everything has gone wrong for him personally in Qatar. In the team, the 26-year-old is said to have become an object of dispute after poor performance.
Bayern Munich's Benjamin Pavard left for the World Cup with a good feeling. The defender played an outstanding tournament when he won the title with France in 2018, he seemed set at right-back and Qatar was also a good omen for him: in January 2021 he scored the only goal in FC Bayern's final win against the club in the final of the Club World Cup Mexican team Tigres UANL.
Two weeks after the start of the tournament, however, everything looks different. In the last two group games, trained central defenders were preferred to him at right back. Coach Didier Deschamps criticized him uncharacteristically, saying that his very poor performance in the 4-1 win over Australia at the start had "not done him any good, both mentally and physically". Most recently, Pavard had also struggled with his role at Bayern and vehemently flirted with a change.
And in the team, according to the usually well-informed sports daily "L'Equipe", the 26-year-old has become an object of dispute. While some players, such as ex-Dortmund Ousmane Dembélé, who played in front of him against Australia, allegedly complained to Deschamps about him, leading players and long-time friends such as captain Hugo Lloris or storm veteran Olivier Giroud jump to the side. If this is true, Pavard threatens the peace of the team - without being able to actively do anything about it.
The French hope that the tournament will go on for a long time and not end with the round of 16 (4 p.m. in the live ticker on ntv.de, ZDF and Magenta TV) against Poland. A lot could still happen in Qatar. In all directions. However, after the 1-0 loss to Tunisia in the group final, when there wasn't even room for Pavard in a B-team, his longtime supporter Deschamps said he was "not in the right state to play".
That doesn't sound like it's going to be used any time soon. But "L'Equipe" is reminiscent of a song that French fans once dedicated to him. "Benjamin Pavard, il sort de nulle part..." means this Pavard comes out of nowhere. And maybe he will experience a second happy ending in Qatar in just under two years.
