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What's the story?
As per reports from Goal.com, Eintracht Frankfurt's Serbian striker Luka Jovic has turned down interests from Spanish giants FC Barcelona to commit his future with the German Club. The Blaugrana has been chasing the mercurial 21-year-old and look at him as a long term successor to 32-year-old Luis Suarez, who has been showing signs of age catching up to him.
In case you didn't know...
Jovic, valued at a cool €55 million is currently on loan at Frankfurt from Portuguese giants Benfica, with the German club already having secured an agreement to sign the Seb permanently, at the end of the season. Jovic has set the Bundesliga on fire this season, netting 17 goals and 5 assists, and is second only to Robert Lewandowski in the goalscoring charts. He has also been in prolific form in the UEFA Europa league, finding the net another 7 times. Jovic's talismanic performances have seen Frankfurt rise to fourth in the Bundesliga standing, in the running for a Champions League berth.
The heart of the matter
Goal.com's Ronan Murphy reported that Luka Jovic's father as having told German tabloid Build that the 21-year old striker wants guaranteed first-team football and wants to repay the faith shown in him by Frankfurt and manager Adi Hütter by helping them to a UEFA Champions League qualifying position in the Bundesliga.
Reports had suggested that Barcelona had tabled an offer of €43 million for the 5-foot 11-inch striker but Frankfurt turned them down, having valued him at €60 million, with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester City also in the running for his signature.
What's next?
Eintracht Frankfurt is set to face Jovic's parent club Benfica tonight in a UEFA Europa League Quarterfinal first leg in Lisbon and all eyes will be on Jovic to see if the 21-year-old can perform at the highest stage, with all his potential suitors in the stands watching on.
