Barcelona Preparing €50m Bid for Luka Jovic After Europa League Heroics for Eintracht Frankfurt
Barcelona are reported to be preparing a €50m bid for Eintracht Frankfurt striker Luka Jovic, after watching him score the goal that eliminated Inter from the Europa League last week.
The 21-year-old is on loan at the Bundesliga side from Benfica, but it's expected that they already have a deal in place to sign him permanently in the summer, and could move him on immediately if the price is right.
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He scored the winning goal at San Siro last week, netting the only goal of the tie as Frankfurt marched on to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, and as he sits on 22 goals for the season, reports have intensified that a move to Barcelona could be forthcoming.
The claim from The Guardian is that the La Liga leaders have watched him for 'some time', and after sending Eric Abidal and Ramon Planes on a scouting mission to watch him in Italy, they are now prepared to pull the trigger.
A €50m bid seems imminent, with negotiations to start in the next few weeks, although the parties could be some way apart in their valuations - as it's thought Frankfurt want a fee in the region of €65m-€70m for his services.
It seems like an expensive outlay on the face of it, but he has scored 31 goals in 63 appearances for the Bundesliga side, and at just 21, he threatens to become one of the world's leading strikers in the years ahead.
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He would likely serve as the alternative and long-term replacement for Luis Suarez that Barça have been chasing, after Kevin-Prince Boateng was brought in as a stop-gap to offer cover in January, but doesn't seem entirely likely to hang around given his solitary appearance so far.
