In the world of football, the search for the perfect center forward is never-ending. Clubs chase elusive goal scorers who can not only find the back of the net consistently but also bring creativity, physicality, and tactical intelligence to the pitch. While some of the big names grab the headlines, there are hidden gems quietly making waves away from the spotlight. One such player is Evangelos “Vangelis” Pavlidis, a Greek forward currently dazzling at Benfica. Blending power, finesse, and an unrelenting work ethic, Pavlidis is the kind of striker that every team dreams of but few truly understand. This article explores why he might just be the most underrated and promising center forward in Europe today.
Vangelic Upstart
It’s Silly Season once again, and that means one thing: big clubs not-so-secretly ruminating feverishly over a position in which there appears to be a dearth of options currently available on the market. This year? It’s the center forwards, those shiny, elusive goalgetters. There’s Benjamin Šeško, there’s Viktor Gyökeres, there’s Victor Osimhen, and then… um… anyone home? It appears that the year everyone (at least in the English Premier League) is crying out for someone to lead the line, no one is coming to the fore.
Of course, the game is, in its current state, moving away from the era of the all-out striker. Teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, and Arsenal are experimenting with playing guys at center forward who don’t exactly fit perfectly into the traditional striker mold, but can perhaps offer their sides “strikerish” skills while simultaneously finding other, less conventional ways to create goalscoring opportunities. This being said, this transition is in its earlier stages and is certainly not all-encompassing. Teams are still looking for that golden boy… if only they could find him.
The Pavlidis Proposition
But what if there was a man who could do it all? What if there was a player out there that had the ability to be that pure goalscorer, that finisher of the highest caliber, an aerial threat, yet could also offer you much more? A man who could also press with incredible effectiveness, who could play on the wing and bulldoze his way infield, who could create like an attacking midfielder? Someone who, while maybe not cheap, was realistically affordable?
Enter Benfica’s Evangelos “Vangelis” Pavlidis. The Greek powerhouse, currently playing for SL Benfica, is an absolute dreamboat of a center forward, and one that many of Europe’s top teams should be eyeing closely. Stocky and bull-headed, yet simultaneously twinkle-toed and possessing the coordination of a ballet dancer, 26-year-old Pavlidis is a man who has somehow slipped under the radar. Well, let the Greek freak, as I am affectionately dubbing him, become a secret no more. He is younger than Gyökeres, more complete than Šeško, and cheaper than Osimhen. And he is destined for a permanent residency in the footballing limelight.
The History of Vangelis
Pavlidis grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece, before moving to Germany to play in the Bochum youth academy in 2015. After cutting his teeth in the German lower divisions, the forward moved to Willem II in the Dutch Eredivisie in the summer of 2018, where he saw growth in his output each of his three seasons with the club: 6 goals in 17 games for 2018-19, 13 in 28 for 2019-20, and 14 in 37 in 2020-21. During this time, he was also called up to the Greek national setup for the first time.
In the summer of 2021, at age 22, AZ Alkmaar—a regular in European qualifiers—signed Pavlidis for just 2.5 million euros, and he went supernova. Over three seasons, he scored 80 goals in 137 games, including 33 goals in 46 matches during his final season, which made him the joint top-scorer in the Eredivisie. During his time at the club, he earned a spot on the Eredivisie Team of the Month seven times.
Benfica, Boos, and a Breakout
As vultures began to circle, the big Greek striker signed a contract with Benfica last summer, with the Portuguese giants paying 18 million euros for him. The Eagles, as the club is known, faced turmoil in the fall of 2024, firing German coach Roger Schmidt and replacing him with former Wolves boss Bruno Lage in September. Pavlidis struggled amid the chaos, scoring only 5 goals and providing 2 assists in 22 games across all competitions by mid-December. Fans grew impatient; at 25 years old, Vangelis had been bought for finished-product money but wasn’t delivering. The knives came out at Estadio da Luz.
And that’s when the Greek Freak exploded. In the last 24 games of the season, he scored 21 goals (16 of them non-penalties) and notched 7 assists for good measure. He scored hat-tricks against Barcelona in the Champions League and against Porto in the league. He won the Portuguese Primeira Liga’s player of the month award in February and finished the season as the league’s joint-second top scorer.
And the good form has extended to the international level, too; in early June, Pavlidis scored for Greece in a 4-1 thrashing in a friendly match against neighbors Bulgaria.
“Surrounded by stars, Pavlidis has touched the sky,” wrote reporters for Portuguese newspaper A Bola after Benfica’s aforementioned thrashing of Porto. And Pavlidis, it seems, is not done rising.
So what makes him tick?
A Man Mountain
One of the most important parts of Pavlidis’s game is his frame. He is a big man, thick-chested, wide-shouldered, thunder-thighed, tree trunk-necked. He is 1,86 m tall, but on the pitch, he seems larger than that. In fact, he is large in just about every way imaginable. With this body type, the Greek forward has the unerring ability to shield the ball from just about anyone. It is hard to quantify this skill, but Pavlidis is not someone you want to leave facing away from your own danger zone. Watching Pavlidis, there are countless times that he can be seen receiving the ball with his back to goal, hulking over it, guarding it with his life, before turning on a dime and passing, carrying, or shooting – an intangible but invaluable skill.
Pavlidis is also surprisingly fast, and his combination of speed and size makes him both capable of playing all across the frontline and being extremely hard to stop on the run. Compared to other Primeira Liga center forwards in 2024-25, he is second only to Viktor Gyökeres in carries into the penalty area per 90 minutes (1.2), and is in the 20th percentile for carries total (20.2). He also completes 1.2 successful take-ons per 90, at a success rate of 43% (in the 85th and 81st percentile of Primeira Liga center forwards, respectively). Moral of the story: it’s hard to stop a human bowling ball as it rolls toward you.
Delicacy Alongside the Beautiful Tumult
But there is more to Pavlidis’s game than overwhelmingness. This may seem convoluted, but trust me on this one: Vangelis Pavlidis reminds me a lot of the 1979 album Teenage Warning by influential British punk group The Angelic Upstarts. The album, gritty as anything, was pioneering in the Oi! movement, a hardcore punk subgenre containing lyrics that exalted the United Kingdom’s working class and lambasted the rich. It has the works: thunderous basslines, jagged guitar lead lines, pulsating drums.
And yet, buy a copy of their debut album, and you will find a dedication in the acknowledgements to the Sex Pistols, and… “mum.”
Vangelis Pavlidis, likewise, is capable of absolute piledrivers with the searing quality of an electric guitar. But he is also uber-skilled at the more delicate sides of the game. When shooting, Pavlidis does not shy away from passing or chipping the ball past the despairing gloves of the opposition keeper with devastating accuracy (he was in the 94th percentile out of all Primeira Liga Center Forwards last season for shots on target per 90, with 1.4). He can often be seen tiptoeing his way through tight spaces in the box to create space for himself, or spinning perfectly weighted passes onto the feet or head of an onrushing teammate.
A great example of this is Pavlidis’s opening goal in Greece’s win over England at the end of last year (in which he scored a brace): he received the ball facing the near sideline, quickly swiveled, jinked delightfully past two challenges, and then promptly lashed the ball into the back of the net at a pace that rendered Jordan Pickford’s efforts in vain. The duality of gentleness and a killer instinct, all in one move.
A Creative Hub
Another Pavlidisish aspect of Teenage Warning is the album’s vocal and lyrical qualities. Lead vocalist Thomas Mensworth does not sing: he growls, his voice more bristly than a goddamn toothbrush. It sputters and screams and chants, sometimes barely audible beneath the waves of instrumental sound. It is sheer oral chaos. Yet, listen closely, and Mensworth is actually making some rather astute observations. On “The Young Ones,” he implores the youth of Britain to act before they are too old to make true change, acknowledging the transience of their lives. On “The Murder of Liddle Towers,” he decries English police brutality, and emphasizes the systemic classism that plagues the British law enforcement system. And on the album’s title track, he warns the older generations of Britain about the possible consequences of not taking young adults, and the social movements they foment, seriously. Sage insights within the harsh noise.
Brains Behind the Brawn
And Pavlidis, too, has a cerebral side to his game alongside the brawn that overwhelms like screeching sonic feedback. He is a terrific passer. Out of center forwards in Portugal last season, he ranked in the 88th percentile for passes completed per 90 (16.6), and in the 78th percentile for pass completion (72.9%); given the Greek Freak’s passing volume, it’s incredible that the second number was that high. And these were not “filler” passes either: Pavlidis was also in the 90th percentile for progressive passes per 90 (2.2), in the 94th percentile for passes into the penalty area per 90 (0.9) and ranked, once again, only behind Viktor Gyökeres for expected assists per 90 (0.2).
Vangelis is also fantastic at navigating and creating space for himself off the ball. He averaged 3.2 shots per game, in the 85th percentile for his position in the Primeira Liga, but also fell within the top 25th percentile for average shot distance (13.6 yards away from goal), and was in the 88th percentile for xG per shot, excluding penalties (0.2).
Delightfully Versatile
But perhaps the most important part of Pavlidis’s mental game is his adaptability. Over the past few years, coaches have tasked him with playing a wide variety of roles as a center forward across different competitions. For example, in last season’s Champions League, where Benfica often faced teams with equal or superior talent, manager Bruno Lage instructed the squad to press from deep, unlike their much higher defensive line in the Primeira Liga. As a result, Pavlidis had to adopt a much deeper positional role than usual, frequently joining play near or inside his own half.
And he excelled. Despite facing incredibly tough competition, big Evangelos consistently found ways to make an impact. He ranked in the 85th percentile among center forwards for touches in the middle third per 90 minutes (17.4), in the 86th percentile for dribblers tackled per 90 (0.6, with nearly a 50% success rate), and in the top 25th percentile for interceptions per 90 (0.5).
Vangelis in the CL, and Some Manageable Downsides
It is important to note that Pavlidis’s offensive numbers in Europe’s premier competition took a slight hit, but they were still very strong. He was in the 89th percentile of xG per 90 (as compared to the 94th percentile in the Primeira Liga), the 86th percentile of non-penalty xG per 90, and even shortened his average shot distance from 13.6 to 12 yards. His take on success rate decreased slightly (from 42.5 to 39.3 percent), but the Greek Freak still was in the top third of center forwards for progressive carries per 90 and carries into the final third per 90. His progressive passing and expected assist numbers took a hit, but this was largely a function of his deeper average position; his total passing volume and efficiency both actually saw a slight increase compared to domestic competition.
This is a player that can do it all. Of course, he has his weaknesses. He is average to poor in the air, in the bottom third of Primeira Liga center forwards for aerial duel win percentage. He can at times be too unselfish, opting to bring a teammate into the game when a shot would be the much more advantageous decision to make. But these are weaknesses that the player is intelligent enough to mask with his own shrewdness, and that a skilled manager would be able to make obsolete. Evangelos Pavlidis is well and truly ready for another step up.
On the Move
Pavlidis’s gargantuan release clause, currently around 100 million euros, could pose a potential stumbling block for interested parties. Benfica also has a well-earned reputation for extracting huge sums from suitors; the transfers of Darwin Núñez to Liverpool and Enzo Fernández to Chelsea in 2022 and 2023 clearly demonstrate this.
However, Benfica has quietly become more flexible in recent years. Last summer, Paris Saint-Germain secured the virtuosic midfield gem João Neves for around 60 million euros, far below his 120 million euro release clause. Six months earlier, the French giants also purchased Gonçalo Ramos—who had a similar release clause—for approximately 65 million euros. This club shows a willingness to negotiate, and a fee between 40 and 50 million euros would likely close the deal.
So the question remains: Where should big Evangelos go? Well, the answer, based on team needs and financial capabilities seems to be… England. Elsewhere in Europe, the big hitters are either devoid of the cash required to secure Pavlidis, or already well-stocked in the center-forward department. The increasing wealth of English clubs, especially for those outside of the traditional “big six” would thus give a plethora of teams in the Premier League the monetary capabilities to secure Pavlidis’s Signature. Of course, Saudi Arabia is certainly a financially viable option, but goodness. It would be a footballing tragedy. Therefore, I narrowed the options down to the following four, of increasingly better fits for both the player and club:
The Options
4. West Ham United
It’s a very, very punchy shout. There would certainly be no problems here in terms of Pavlidis’s ability to fit into West Ham’s starting XI. For nearly a decade, the Hammers have been crying out for a self-creating center forward to either challenge or usurp the ever-present Michail Antonio. Haller was the wrong profile, Scamacca was never happy in East London, Fullkrug was dead (injured) on arrival, and Ferguson was, unfortunately, just plain terrible. Now, with Antonio in recovery from injuries obtained in a terrifying car crash, and his contract on the verge of expiry, West Ham need a spearhead to their side more than ever.
Pavlidis is malleable enough to play in any position across the frontline in new manager Graham Potter’s 3-4-2-1 system, and is a willing presser. He’s a perfect fit, and the Irons have proven themselves to be big spenders in the past. But, given the club’s dismal season last year, and their tendency to derail forwards’ careers, would Pavlidis be willing to join? Probably not, but it’s worth a try.
3. Nottingham Forest
Look, I love Chris Wood. Who doesn’t love Chris Wood? But being frank, if Nottingham Forest, who have shown ambition to push themselves further up the Premier League table, want to continue their meteoric rise, they need to move past the Kiwi striker as a starting option. With Taiwo Awoniyi’s footballing future uncertain after a severe injury at the end of last season, relegating Wood to the bench and spending big on Pavlidis would perhaps not be the worst idea. They certainly have the funds, and with European football on the horizon, this is a team that needs to strengthen.
The signing of Pavlidis would resolve a multitude of problems that Forest had going forward, ones that became especially transparent as the season reached its conclusion. Pavlidis’s ability to forge chances for himself, in stark contrast to Chris Wood, would take a significant burden off of Morgan Gibbs-White in terms of shot creation. He would also drag players out of position in a manner that would open up space for the onrushing Gibbs-White, Anthony Elanga, and Callum Hudson-Odoi, none of whom are shot-shy.
The main problem here would be Forest’s defensive system. Forest are not a high-pressing team, preferring to harry their opponents in the deep. While it is entirely possible that the signing of Pavlidis would cause Nuno Espirito Santo to adjust his schemata around him, it feels wrong that such a key part of Vangelis’s game could potentially be sacrificed; there are better fits.
2. Manchester United
Manchester United Football Club should be down on their knees, begging and imploring Benfica and Vangelis Pavlidis to inject some shot creation into their barren front line. Pavlidis would provide options for threaded passes from Bruno Fernandes, and his frame would be an ideal target for crosses from United’s wingbacks. The intelligence of his movement would also drag defenders into uncomfortable regions of the pitch, and create ample space for (probable) new signings Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha to drive into. It is unclear what brand of football Ruben Amorim will actually implement next season, but Pavlidis’s tactical versatility means that he would score goals in a more transition-based or possession-based system.
But could Pavlidis join, say, a better-run club than United? Obviously, there is a name draw to England’s most successful club of the Premier League era, and a similar allure to a manager who himself has made the northwards journey to English shores from Portugal. But… What a mess. Certainly, Vangelis would look back at United’s trajectory in the Premier League table, and their recent track record with center forwards and shudder. That being said, if two of the most lauded attacking players from outside of the “big six” are still willing to gallivant on over to Old Trafford, the transfer may still be possible; United should absolutely be on top of this one if it is.
1. Brentford
My personal favorite. At first glance, it may seem just outside the realm of possibility, but is it? Brentford have shown themselves to be sneakily big spenders (doling nearly 100 million Euros out in 2024-25), and will certainly receive a pretty penny for Bryan Mbeumo’s services. This is a club that finished in eighth position in the Premier League last year, and should be looking up, rather than down the table. They have the money to spend, and they should spend it.
The Bees play high-octane, transitional football—a style that big Vangelis would only supercharge further. It’s important to note that manager Thomas Frank will likely leave the club this summer, as Spurs are showing interest in the Danish miracle worker. However, I would be surprised if Brentford didn’t secure a similarly tactically gifted replacement.
This is a club that does not usually let players or managers “be the system” per se; they appoint and buy with their own system in mind. Because of this, Pavlidis would likely flourish at Brentford even amidst a transitional period of leadership. He has worked well with wide forwards in the mould of Yoane Wissa and Kevin Schade in the past (see Ruben Van Bommel at AZ, Kerem Akturkoglu at Benfica), and his defensive work rate would fit well into the Bees’ out-of-possession scheme. His large frame would be a superb threat from set pieces and long throws, too.
Of course, with all of this being said, Brentford are not a club with huge name recognition, and Pavlidis would, perhaps, have his head turned by bigger names. But if this transfer were to happen, it would feed families.
Honorable Mentions
Pavlidis’s all-around prowess would be a great fit for Arsenal, but it seems they are targeting different profiles. Both Spurs and Chelsea could also absolutely use a player of Pavlidis’s caliber, but both would be better off spending their money in more threadbare areas of their squads. Across Europe, Pavlidis would be a fun signing for teams like Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, or AC Milan, but all three of these clubs seem content with their forward options (or, at the very least, are also looking to strengthen in other areas first).
Conclusion
As the football world constantly hunts for the next big striker, Evangelos Pavlidis stands as a compelling alternative to the usual household names. His rare combination of size, skill, and tactical intelligence makes him a player capable of influencing games in multiple ways, not just as a goal scorer but as a creative force and a physical presence. With his recent breakout at Benfica and growing impact on the international stage, Pavlidis’s time in the shadows is coming to an end. For those who spot him now, it could be the chance to witness the rise of football’s next true all-around center forward.