The season is not even over, yet Paris Saint-Germain have already struck their first blow in the summer transfer market. Edinson Cavani, who after an outstanding season that may see him break the barrier of 50 goals, has signed a contract with them that ties him to the club for another three years.
After a slow start to the campaign, the Uruguayan has become central to his side’s belated charge for honours this year.
In many ways, 2016-17 has offered a microcosm of Cavani’s PSG career. Forced to the periphery by the presence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic initially, the former Napoli man has eventually come good.
Indeed, only Ibrahimovic and Mustapha Dahleb have scored more goals in the history of the club, and Cavani needs only three more before the end of the season to surpass the latter’s tally of 85. Next term, the Swede will likely follow, despite holding a 30-goal advantage at present.
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“He’s a player hungry for goals and for victories,” head coach Unai Emery explained earlier in the season.
Having smashed his previous goals record with more than a month of the campaign remaining, the 30-year-old still does not appear satisfied and is intent on making up for lost time, having been reduced to a dogsbody on the wing for so long. Now in the centre, he is in fine touch.
“This is where I would have liked to be aligned as soon as I arrived in Paris,” he admitted in an interview with UEFA.
Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Papin, the Ballon d’Or winner of 1991 and a Champions League winner with AC Milan, has spoken highly of the forward.
“He was a born attacker, a true No. 9. I’m delighted with the season he has played and I’m confident that he can break records,” he explained to PSG’s official website.
Cavani has not only benefited from the move into the middle, he has thrived in the absence of Ibrahimovic. As Manchester United are finding, the Swede tends to dominate teams, with his style dictating that everything has to flow through him.
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Although Cavani is PSG’s runaway top scorer this season – more so than his former colleague ever was – there is a sense that they are less reliant on him and are capable of playing in a more multi-dimension manner than was the case before.
“His first job is to score goals,” Emery said last month. That was, of course, Zlatan’s priority, too, but he also wanted to do everything else in the forward line, from dropping deep to link play to acting as a playmaker.
Cavani, on the other hand, is a much purer No. 9. “They’re two completely different players,” Thiago Silva explained after a win at Nantes. “Cavani likes to attack in behind more. Before he’s finished here, he can score more goals than Ibra.”
The Uruguayan is seen as ugly by some – often only touching the ball into the net after the hard work of others – but the quality of his movement to get into these positions is the equal of any player in the world game. It is not seen as a glamorous skill, but it is a precious one – and one undervalued, too.
But while PSG have tied down perhaps their most valuable attacking asset, there can be little doubt that he requires more support if the reigning French champions are to make progress in the Champions League.
Cavani actually had a successful season in Europe, scoring eight times in as many games, including in both legs of the knockout defeat against Barcelona. Given that he had few other chances to score in those ties, he does not go into the summer stand accused of having been implicit in his club’s downfall.
He has been more effective in taking chances, particularly those simple ones he has been so prone to miss at big moments, and this has taken his game to an additional level.
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He is not, however, a player who will win PSG the European Cup. He is a figure who can be built around to lead the attack, but his style dictates that on his own he is not a matchwinner in the form of a Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo – the only other players in the game right now who can match his sheer effectiveness in front of goal.
Cavani will go on to win Ligue 1’s top scorer – he has 31 league goals, as many as Lionel Messi, to his credit this term – but it will owe as much to those around him as his own talents. It is a stick that can be used to beat him with, but so long as he keeps putting the ball in the net, no-one at the Parc des Princes will care.
Now committed to potentially seeing out his career with the French champions, he will spearhead their charge for the Champions League title, and if he is successful in that quest, even the artistry and the all-round brilliance of Ibrahimovic will be pushed into the shade.
