‘Magical player’: Lionel Messi loves reported West Ham and Leicester target

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It is not often Lionel Messi sits down to discuss the world of football; at least, not with the press, anyway.

So it certainly felt like an occasion when the notoriously reclusive Barcelona superstar decided to name 15 players he felt had a one-way ticket to stardom in their back pocket, including Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kai Havertz and Jadon Sancho.

Unfortunately for another of those chosen few, however his journey to the top is already proving to be a bumpy one.

“A magical player who makes the impossible, possible,” Messi said of Luka Jovic back in April, via OneFootball.

In many ways, Jovic has ‘made the impossible, possible’ at Barca’s bitter rivals Real Madrid.

After all, absolutely no one would have predicted that, when he arrived at the Bernabeu in a £59 million deal from Eintracht Frankfurt, the Serbia star would have scored just two La Liga goals 17 months later.

Anyone who saw Jovic hit the net for fun in the Bundesliga, scoring 27 times alone in 2018/19, would have told you that such remarkable levels of profligacy from a player as lethal as this were, in fact, ‘impossible’.

Jovic has been such a disappointment in Madrid that, according to the Mirror (1 November, page 65), a man frozen out of the starting XI by Zinedine Zidane has been made available for transfer ahead of the January window.

West Ham United and Leicester City are allegedly interested.

On the face of it, a move to the London Stadium or even the King Power would feel like a backwards step for a man Real signed to replace the goals of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018.

But, as Messi and countless others have said over the last few years, a fit and firing Jovic is a joy to behold.

It is almost two years ago today that he announced himself in spectacular style with five stunning finishes, including a barely-believable overhead kick, in a 7-1 trouncing of Fortuna Dusseldorf. That sort of ability doesn’t just leave you forever.

The magic Messi referred to has been scarcely seen in Madrid, but maybe all Jovic needs is a move away to recapture that spark. After all, it worked for Wesley Sneijder, Rafael Van der Vaart and James Rodriguez, to name a few.