Barcelona Eyes Vangelis Pavlidis as Striker Options Dwindle
Barcelona’s search for a new No. 9 has hit a wall. Twice. So the club are now looking at a forward who once tore them apart under the Lisbon lights.
According to Cadena SER, Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis has emerged as a serious alternative for Barça’s sporting department as their pursuit of top targets becomes increasingly tangled in resistance and refusals.
Alvarez and Kroupi deals blocked
The plan was clear: bring in a high-profile centre-forward. The execution has been anything but.
Julian Alvarez sits at the top of Barcelona’s wishlist, yet Atletico Madrid have treated the Catalans’ interest with a firm, unyielding “no”. Initial approaches have been rejected, and the message from the Spanish capital is blunt: Alvarez is not for sale.
Just as Barcelona looked to pivot, another door slammed shut. Attention turned to Bournemouth’s Eli Junior Kroupi, a 20-year-old viewed as a long-term investment for the position. The Premier League club’s stance has been even more categorical. Kroupi is considered untouchable, and they are refusing to even open talks over a summer move.
Two targets, two dead ends. The market, once full of promise, has narrowed quickly.
Pavlidis: from executioner to option
Into that gap steps Pavlidis, a name that still stings inside the Camp Nou offices.
The Greek international is not the glamorous, headline-dominating figure that Alvarez would be, nor the raw project Kroupi represents. He is something else: proven, ruthless, and, crucially for Barcelona, more attainable.
At 27, Pavlidis is coming off a superb 2025/26 season with SL Benfica. He finished as the top scorer in the Primeira Liga, hitting 22 goals in 33 league games and closing the campaign with 30 goals in 53 appearances across all competitions. Those are not speculative numbers. They belong to a striker who scores regularly, in different contexts, under pressure.
And in Barcelona’s case, under their noses.
The night at the Estádio da Luz
If anyone at the club needs a reminder of what Pavlidis can do, they only have to replay one chaotic, breathless Champions League night in January 2025.
At the Estádio da Luz, Pavlidis shredded Barcelona’s back line with a devastating first-half hat-trick, completed inside 30 minutes. He bullied defenders, attacked space, and finished with icy precision in a wild 5-4 contest that left Barça’s bench stunned and Benfica’s stadium roaring.
That treble stands as the third-fastest hat-trick from the start of a match in Champions League history. For Barcelona’s hierarchy, it also stands as a warning: ignore this striker at your peril.
It is no coincidence that his name has resurfaced now, with the club searching for guarantees in front of goal and options dwindling at the top of the market.
Not Plan A – at least not yet
Inside the sporting department, Alvarez remains the priority. Barcelona are not ready to abandon that pursuit, even as Atletico Madrid hold their ground.
Pavlidis, for the moment, sits a step behind on the list. A Plan C on paper, perhaps, but far from a token name. He offers experience, reliability, and a track record that includes punishing the very team now weighing up a move for him.
As the window drags on and negotiations grow more complicated, the question will sharpen: how long can Barcelona afford to chase the unreachable before turning decisively to the striker who has already shown them exactly what he can do?
