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According to Raffaele Auriemma, Borussia Dortmund are battling Napoli for Benfica’s left back Alejandro Grimaldo. The 22-year-old has impressed in the Portuguese league since he joined from Barcelona’s famous La Masia academy two years ago. In the Si Gonfia la Rete‘ radio show on Radio CRC Auriemma claimed BVB are able to offer slightly higher wages to Grimaldo and could match Napoli’s 30€ million offer for the fullback. Napoli could still win out but the deal hinges on the transfer of their own left back Faouzi Ghoulam to Manchester United.
The hunt for a new centerback continues and a familiar name has reappeared on BVB’s radar. According to Sports Illustrated Borussia Dortmund are still interested in Benjamin Pavard even though they have some tough competition from Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Bayern Munich. Rumors suggested the French international could have a release clause of 30€ million in his contract with VfB Stuttgart although those rumors still remain unconfirmed.
- Abundance of wingers
After the signing of Marius Wolf, BVB have seemingly an abundance of wingers. Let’s assume Favre will mostly play with a 4-3-3 and Dortmund will still make a big signing at striker this essentially leaves two places left for 8 players, Reus, Philipp, Sancho, Pulisic, Wolf, Schürrle, Yarmolenko and Gomez.
One or even two of those will probably leave this summer with Schürrle and Yarmolenko being the best bets but that would still leave us with a tough competition for the starting spots. Reus seems like a lock to start and Gomez is still very young so he might not break into the squad just yet but that still leaves Philipp, Sancho, Wolf and Pulisic to battle it out for the last remaining spot. There will of course be some rotation with BVB being in three competitions but it will still be very interesting to see how Favre will manage this situation.