Eintracht Frankfurt: Luka Jovic returns to the SBU

Luka Jovic’s return to Eintracht Frankfurt is perfect. sport.de answers the five most important questions about the Serbian move from Real Madrid to SGE.

• How did Luka Jovic move to Eintracht?

On Christmas Eve, Bas Dost, one of only two regular center strikers, left the club. As soon as the transfer was dry, the first speculations arose about Luka Jovic’s return to Frankfurt.

Even if sports director Fredi Bobic confirmed “active contact” with the player and his advisor Fali Ramadani at the time, an internal obligation was “not an issue”. But that has changed in the last few days.

“We are very, very happy that we already have a very good partnership with Real Madrid and that this opportunity has now existed,” Bobic told Sky.

But Luka Jovic himself has also tried extremely hard to come back to Frankfurt, according to coach Adi Hütter. “I spoke to him on the phone yesterday evening. He did everything in his power to make it to Frankfurt,” reported Hütter after the 1: 4 (1: 1) defeat in the DFB Cup catch-up game at Bayer Leverkusen.

The Austrian spoke of “very, very good conversations”: “I was really happy to hear him again and he was happy too.”

On Thursday, SGE made the deal perfect. “It was his great desire to return to Eintracht,” said Bobic, explaining the advantages of the loan deal: “Luka can use the next few months to find his way back to his old strength in a familiar environment. Real Madrid know that he is in good hands with us is and can develop here. And it is clear to us that we have another excellent option in the storm center. ” More about it here.

• What are the key data of the Jovic deal?

One thing is certain: the loan will initially only last until the summer: “First of all, it’s only about the remaining first half of the season and the second half of the season,” said the sports director.

You want to monitor the sporting and financial development of the player, the club and the environment. “I think that is also correct and responsible in these pandemic times. We can then rethink everything that is in the summer, depending on the situation in football and the world,” said Bobic, describing the project.

Eintracht Frankfurt does not have a purchase option, so it would have to be renegotiated in the summer if the worst comes to the worst. The fact that Jovic will play again in the Main metropolis is also due to the courtesy of Real Madrid, which, according to “Bild”, continues to pay large parts of its annual salary of ten million euros. Eintracht pays around two million euros and thus roughly as much as Bas Dost would have also received.

• What is Luka Jovic hoping for from returning to Frankfurt?

After a year and a half of almost consistently frustrating years in the Spanish capital, Luka Jovic would like to start with some match practice. He missed this especially in the current season, after all, he was on the pitch for just 208 minutes in just five games.

Jovic’s last assignment was on November 8th, after which he fell out with a corona infection and then again and again with muscular problems. With regular appearances in Frankfurt, the Serb should return to the form that Real Madrid was still worth 60 million euros in the summer of 2019.

He would also do well to improve his image after he was even charged with an alleged violation of corona requirements in his home country. The 23-year-old had already come under fire for multiple misconduct.

• What does Eintracht Frankfurt hope for from the Jovic commitment?

For Eintracht, the financial risk is manageable given the general conditions. Ideally, the SGE will get an adequate Dost replacement, even though Jovic is a different type of player simply because of his stature.

But with his speed, his ball handling and his massive finish, the 1.82-meter striker still fits well with the high-intensity play style of Eintracht. In addition, he could take the burden off André Silva of taking care of the majority of the goals alone.

For the club, the return campaign is also a boost to morale. “It’s a very, very special signal to the outside world, but also to the inside for our team.” That Luka is coming home is the best news of the day, “said Hütter.

• What are the chances of success?

What the return of Luka Jovic means to the Eintracht fans could be read directly after Bobic’s “Sky” interview: The news sparked a huge euphoria. Some already thought they were cup winners and European Cup participants, only occasionally were warned about the height of the fall.

How much the striker can actually help the team, which is eighth in the Bundesliga, still looking for the European Cup places, cannot yet be reliably said. It has been too long since his last missions, and it is too difficult to assess his fitness level.

“How far he is in the end, I’ll see in the next few days,” Adi Hütter had to admit, despite the feel-good atmosphere. One advantage, however, is the fact that Jovic knows “the team and the club”.

“We get an exceptionally good player in an intact team,” said the coach. The pure settling-in period is therefore manageable. But time will tell whether that alone is enough to make Jovic a direct hit. But he is probably not suitable for immediate aid.

Luis Holuch