In the summer of 2019, Luka Jovic’s name was on the agenda of major clubs in Europe, the Serbian endorsed by his 27 goals with Eintracht Frankfurt during the season, and finally Real Madrid bet more firmly to take what seemed like a striker with the potential to mark an era, only 21 years old at the time. Nothing is further from reality for the striker, that he is close to consummating his failure as a meringue with his signing for Fiorentina.
The white club paid 60 million fixed plus five variables to satisfy the request of the team’s then coach, Zinédine Zidane, convinced that he had found the goals, or part of them, that had flown with Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure the previous year. But the Frenchman lost faith in his new pupil practically from the first day, postponed to the bench first and ostracized later.
In addition, in his first season, that of the outbreak of the pandemic, Jovic was infected with covid and was later denounced by the authorities of his country for skipping the quarantine in Belgrade. At that time, after six months as a madridista, he had scored two goals, both inconsequential in injury time in the league games against Leganés (5-0) and Osasuna (1-4).
Two seasons later, he has only added one more goal to his scoring account, the one that closed the League match against Real Sociedad at Anoeta (0-2) last December. In fact, when he was loaned to Eintracht in the winter of two seasons ago, he scored three goals in six months, the same as during his Madrid stage.
Zidane’s departure at the end of the 2020-21 season gave Jovic a new opportunity, who however had an equal and even more secondary role with coach Carlo Ancelotti, who has had enough with Benzema and Vinícius to cover the subject of goal and sign one of the best seasons in the history of the club.
While a few have enjoyed the trust of the Alpine coach, who is not very fond of rotations, another large part of the Madrid squad has seen the season go by from the bench or the stands. “Jovic, Bale and Hazard are not punished,” the coach said after being eliminated from the Cup against Athletic about the usual substitutes, including the Balkan, who did not even go out to warm up in San Mamés.
In the 2018-19 season, his only great year in the elite, Jovic proved with Eintracht to be a great finisher in the area, capable of scoring with both feet and using his physique between defenders to prevail. In Madrid, however, a player has been out of place, lazy and slow, who at no time, not even in a game, has shown himself to be the striker that he was supposed to be.
After two and a half seasons, in which he has participated in 51 games with only 1,563 minutes on the field, Madrid would have decided to give up on Jovic and assume that his journey in white has come to an end despite having a contract until 2025. According to various reports, Madrid is willing to let the Serbian go to Fiorentina for free, with whom he would sign a two-year contract plus two other optional ones and his salary would be lowered to 2.5 million per year. Whites would only secure 50% of a future sale.
Beyond Hazard, the most expensive signing in the club’s history (160 million) who for now has not shown anything, Jovic is the most notorious failure in recent times of a Madrid that lives on the second youth of Benzema (34 years ), whose 44 goals and his excellent season in general explain the conquest of the Champions League and the League this past season. Except for Vinícius, behind the Frenchman he emptied himself facing the goal.
