Jan Bednarek, the 29-year-old Polish international centre-back, was officially announced this Monday as FC Porto's new signing. The Dragons paid 7.5 million euros to Southampton, with the defender signing a contract valid until June 2029.
Jan Bednarek arrives at FC Porto from Southampton, a club he had represented since 2017, with a loan to Aston Villa in between, in the first half of the 2022/2023 season.
Last season, the Polish centre back, who has 69 caps and one goal for his country's senior team, made 34 official appearances, scoring two goals, in a year in which he was unable to prevent Southampton's relegation to the Championship.
The English club's relegation helped bring about this deal, which accelerated over the weekend, with FC Porto paying 7.5 million euros, slightly more than the amount Southampton paid in 2017, to sign Bednarek from Lech Poznan.
Jan Bednarek is FC Porto's seventh signing for 2024/2025, after Gabri Veiga, João Costa, Dominik Prpic, Borja Sainz, Victor Froholdt and Alberto Costa.
Jan Bednarek is 29 years old, 1.90 metres tall, has 69 caps for the Polish national team and nearly two hundred games at the top level of English football. He will now strengthen FC Porto's defence after signing a contract valid for the next four seasons, until 2029.
The small town of Słupca, in the heart of Poland, was the birthplace of the Bednarek brothers in the 90s. Jan, who is four years younger than Sparta Rotterdam keeper Filip, started playing football close to home at Sokół Kleczew before moving to the outskirts of Poznan.
A season at MSP Szamotuły was enough to attract the interest of Lech Poznan, who recruited the powerful centre-back's services when he was still a teenager. His first-team debut, which earned him a Polish Championship medal in 2014/15, was followed by a loan spell at Gornik Leczna and dozens of youth international appearances.
In the summer of 2016 he returned to his original club and had an excellent season in the Ekstraklasa - so good that he ended up moving to English football and became Lech's biggest ever sale, surpassing that of Robert Lewandowski to Borussia Dortmund.
Upon arriving at Southampton, his first experience abroad, he made half a dozen appearances for the Saints' under-23s before making his Premier League debut (and scoring) against champions Chelsea.
That game was followed by 183 more in the top British league, and in the last edition, only three players managed to intercept more balls than Jan Bednarek, who equalled the 56 of Virgil van Dijk, his predecessor at Southampton and current Liverpool captain.
Porto's new number five arrives in the Invicta city after eight seasons in England, during which he also played in two World Cups (2018 and 2022), two European Championships (2020 and 2024) and four Nations League editions (2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024) for Poland.
FC Porto statement:
"FC Porto has reached an agreement with Southampton Football Club for the definitive acquisition of the sporting registration rights and 100 per cent of the economic rights of Jan Bednarek for a fixed sum of 7.5 million euros. Furthermore, FC Porto has signed the player to a contract valid for four seasons, until 30 June 2029, and has agreed a termination clause of 60 million euros. Southampton will assume responsibility for the solidarity mechanism due to third parties and FC Porto declares that it will have charges for intermediation services of 3% of the amount of the transaction."