Pavard starts at Cagliari, his Inter future definitively settled

Benjamin Pavard will indeed play the full season with Inter Milan. Starting on Sunday in the trip to Cagliari (1-0 victory, goal by Çalhanoglu), the 30-year-old French defender dispelled questions raised by his absence from the starting lineup the previous week against Monza.

Yet the path has been winding. Placed on the transfer list this summer to ease the club’s wage bill — notably when Inter was negotiating the arrival of Cristian Romero — Pavard ultimately convinced Romanian coach Cristian Chivu to count on him in the right centre-back position. On Sunday, he was preferred to his direct rival Yann Bisseck.

Chivu took care to publicly clarify his position on the player developed at LOSC. “I never spoke about him when he left. I know Benji. There was a misunderstanding about my decision last year, and this summer, but I never doubted his value. I saw a player with great willingness to be part of this group, because it’s Inter. He is happy in Milan, he had a daughter and got married. If a player shows his qualities in pre-season, it’s not a problem for me,” the manager said.

This comeback comes after a nightmarish season at Marseille that cost Pavard his place in the France squad and left him out of the 2026 World Cup. At 30, Inter represents an opportunity to revive a career that was stagnating.

The fixture list should give him playing time. Inter face Real Madrid at the Bernabéu in the UEFA Champions League next week — where Pavard will reunite with his former French teammates Ibrahima Konaté, Eduardo Camavinga and Kylian Mbappé. The rest of the Nerazzurri’s European campaign, against Bruges, Shakhtar, Feyenoord, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Liverpool and Slovan Bratislava, should guarantee him regular exposure, even without being Chivu’s first-choice centre-back.