Luka Jovic’s second German redemption: why he insists on returning to Eintracht

Luka Jovic has already entrusted his redemption to Eintracht Frankfurt once. On July 1, 2017, he arrived in Germany on loan from Benfica, where he had derailed. From a start of anger about not playing, to a certain nighttime disorientation crowned by a confusing accident in his pool that cost him a month and a half off. “It was not professional. I always admit my mistakes. I had a problem in my head. I was nostalgic, ”he acknowledged. So it was another broken promise. Until he ran into Nico Kovac in Frankfurt. The coach installed him in his hotel, he went to look for him in the room to take him to the gym: closed marking.

Also, he spoke to her in their language. And he recognized his authority when he said things like: “Either you do this or I’ll kill you,” recalls an Eintracht source. “It has never been as good as here,” he says.

Somehow, it seems that the happiness was mutual. “The most spectacular signing of the winter market”, wrote this Wednesday the newspaper Bild, hours after the Eintracht sports director, Fredi Bobic, told on Tuesday in public that the footballer’s return was near: “Luka Jovic is about to arrive at our club until next summer,” he said.

Shortly after, while the terms of the loan without the option to buy until the end of the season were being negotiated between Madrid and the German club, their coach, Adi Hüter, also announced his joy: “We get a special player,” he said. “It is a great sign for the public and also within.”

Hüter succeeded Kovac on the bench at the end of Jovic’s first season in Germany and from the club they remember that he was really the one who pushed him to explode as the scorer who, at 21, seduced Zidane, who has admitted to having requested his signing . With Kovac it already began to appear: nine goals and two assists in 1,141 minutes (he participated in a goal every 103 minutes). But he excelled in the 2018-19 season with Hüter, who placed him next to Ante Rebic: 27 goals and seven assists in 3,302 minutes (he participated in a goal every 97 minutes).

At that point, Madrid decided to pay 60 million euros for him. Zidane recalled this Wednesday: “A striker who scores goals, that’s his characteristic, he’s one who scores a lot. I was 21 years old, young man, we want just that, and it’s what we want from Luka. It is still the same thing, but he has not had much luck, and he has also had difficulties adjusting, “he said. In Madrid he has scored two goals and has given two assists in 1,014 minutes (one participation every 253 minutes).

He has not managed to fit in with Valdebebas, with little knowledge of Spanish, hardly making friends in the squad and having difficulties connecting to the team’s game, as they also know at Eintracht. “When you arrive at Real Madrid, which has people of such quality as Benzema, you have to adapt to them; you can’t expect them to do it to you. There are things that he has not done well ”, says the mentioned source of the German club. “Now we have to see not only how he is physically, but also upside down.”

Eintracht Frankfurt still have about 20 games ahead this season and they have promised to play a lot. The last time he did it with Madrid was on November 8: seven minutes at the Mestalla. “If he scores five goals, we will be happy. And if he doesn’t put any, nothing happens ”, they say from the German club, euphoric at the return. “I was very happy when I heard him again,” Hüter said of the telephone conversation they had had. “He has to learn many things, and that is what he is going to do,” Zidane said on Wednesday without wanting to take the assignment for granted.