Tottenham face Barcelona competition for €100m goal-a-game striker

Analysis

Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Tottenham and Barcelona are both vying to sign Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis, with the Portuguese side ready to request as much as €100 million for the Greece international star.

After a difficult start to the Premier League season, Spurs are seeking to increase Roberto De Zerbi’s firepower but have been informed that they will likely have to spend as much as €100m to sign Pavlidis, who has scored 14 goals in 13 matches for Benfica this season.

The London club, meanwhile, have shown a willingness to splash out in the transfer market this season, having already spent €108m on Sandro Tonali, €99m on Mateus Fernandes while the deal that brought Savio from Manchester City was worth €87.7m.

Why do Spurs want Pavlidis?

The attraction of Pavlidis, which is reported by the Daily Briefing, is made clear by the numbers he has produced at Benfica so far this season.

Although he is a striker who is best characterised as a poacher, he is also capable of dropping deep and moving into dangerous spaces between the lines, while his speed gives him an additional dimension compared to other forwards.

His all-round output in Portugal’s top-flight this season has been well above the average forward, with his profile showing that he has excelled in almost every domain for his club domestically.

Pavlidis has also shown a strong degree of consistency. In the 2024/25 season, he got 19 goals and seven assists, then followed that up with 23 goals and three assists a year later. He is well on course to beat both tallies already this season.

Pavlidis comes with an element of risk

But despite these impressive numbers, some doubts should remain over the impact he can have in the Premier League. After all, Darwin Nunez shone with Benfica in Portugal before making a disappointing big-money move to Liverpool in 2022.

Pavlidis would be at risk of doing similar, according to data analytics firm SciSports, which is far from convinced that he is at the level of the current Spurs squad.

His SciSkill rating, which is calculated using hundreds of in-game data points, sits at 89.7. The bulk of the Tottenham squad, meanwhile, lie above 90.0.

Indeed, Pavlidis’ main competition for the centre-forward role are Omar Marmoush and Dominic Solanke, both of whom have higher SciSkills, sitting at 103.1 and 95.0 respectively.

A further factor counting against the Greek is his age. He will turn 28 in November and he is not expected to develop any further.

SciSports’ Career Advice tool, which rates clubs based on a wide variety of factors from potential development and playing time to style and formation, only scores Tottenham 64.

By contrast, Barcelona score 82 and are seen as one of Pavlidis’ best options.

Where Spurs do have an edge on the Catalans is their financial strength, but does De Zerbi really want to gamble €100m on a striker who only has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €31.1m, despite a clearly formidable scoring record?

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