Real Madrid flop Luka Jovic turned down an offer from West Ham United in an attempt to kick-start his career back at Eintracht Frankfurt, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau.
They do say “never go back”.
But two years after firing Frankfurt to the Europa League semi-finals with 27 goals in all competitions, Jovic had no time for tired old cliches.
The £52 million striker would have known following a miserable spell at Real Madrid his reputation probably wouldn’t survive another disastrous spell in a major European league.
FR claims West Ham, Napoli and AC Milan were all interested in handing Jovic a fresh start away from the La Liga champions.
But the 23-year-old always planned to rekindle an old affair rather than risk getting involved with a new flame.
“He did everything he could to get to Frankfurt,” says Eagles coach Adi Hutter, who has welcomed Jovic back to the Commerzbank Arena on a short-term loan deal.
Perhaps the Bosnia-born Serbia international felt this wasn’t the time to test himself in a new league and a new country.
And who can blame him? Jovic’s four-month spell in Germany will revolve around rediscovering some semblance of the form that caught Real Madrid’s eye in the first place.
Fortunately for West Ham, there are plenty of other exciting young strikers on the market.
Boulaye Dia, Abdallah Sima, Patson Daka and Adam Hlozek have all been mentioned as potential Sebastien Haller replacements, while Arkadiusz Milik’s Napoli contract will expire in July.
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