Luka Jovic, against Granada at the Bernabéu last season AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
63 million and three goals in three seasons. Here’s how Luka Jovic (Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina; 24 years old) closes his way through Real Madrid, one of the biggest fiascos of recent years considering it’s the eighth most expensive purchase in the history of the club. As the agreement remains undisclosed, the striker leaves for Fiorentina, who pay nothing for him but will share 50% of the player’s rights with the white entity during the next two seasons, according to Bernabéu official sources. Now at the Castellana they don’t put anything in the box for the attacker, but in case of sale or entry for another operation by 2024 they would receive half the sum.
After weeks of talks with the Italian team, this is the formula found to release a player whose market price has incessantly collapsed since arriving at the Bernabéu in 2019. His departure was one of the issues that had to be addressed this summer. In the days leading up to the end of the course, the offices hoped for a solution (more than with Mariano) and finally found it in alliance with the viola ensemble, a classic from Serie A, which finished in seventh place in the last league.
Jovic was part of the huge investment (355m) made by Madrid three seasons ago to alleviate the huge offensive hole left by Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure 12 months earlier. His guarantor were the 27 goals scored in 2018/19 with Eintracht. An area forward, a finisher with a profile that on paper could complement Karim Benzema’s characteristics. But that idea didn’t get off the paper. The cold and unflappable character with which he has always been used in the white team – even in the everyday life of Valdebebas, comment those who have watched him train – translated into an icy, frozen, invisible football. Of the three goals he left Chamartín with, two were on 19/20. in separate goals: the fifth against Leganés (5-0) and the fourth against Osasuna (1-4). His only spark came at Anoeta (0-2) last December when he replaced Benzema through injury, scoring a goal and an assist. Nothing more, that’s how it all began and ended.
February swallowed it
At the beginning of the course, Carlo Ancelotti did not miss the opportunity to praise him whenever the opportunity arose, aware that behind the non-negotiable French nine he would need someone else to lend his shoulder. The other alternative was Mariano. However, Jovic’s signs of life finally exhausted themselves without reaching Christmas, that winter night in San Sebastián. In the last four months of competition he has played just 75 minutes in two inconsequential league games (at the Metropolitano and at home against Levante) and has not featured in European qualifiers. In February, in a delicate moment due to Benzema’s physical problems and defeats in Paris (first leg of the Champions League round of 16) and Bilbao (elimination in the cup quarter-finals), the emergency reserves were Isco and Asensio from the wrong nine, and even Gareth bale Jović, absent.
Carletto’s public affection didn’t prevent the result being the same as Zinedine Zidane’s cold. His advantages were as small in one as in the other. Already at the beginning of his second season he was about to say goodbye. Everything was between him and Borja Mayoral and the one who left was the youth team. However, his decline continued and in the winter transfer window he returned to Eintracht on loan to revitalize a career that had already accumulated many months of emptiness. But the place where he was happy didn’t make him poor either.
Madrid return to training this Friday and Luka Jovic will be absent. Regarding the closed season in Paris with the Champions League title, Isco, Marcelo and Bale also do not continue, in their case due to a contract termination. In return, Antonio Rüdiger (after finishing at Chelsea) and Aurélien Tchouameni came with a fixed price of 80 million.
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