It has been a strange summer for Luka Jovic, who got a renewal and took the No.9 shirt but has now been left out of the Champions League squad list after exit talk late in the window.
The official announcement came yesterday stating that Jovic, as expected, has been excluded from the list that Milan sent to UEFA. The Serbian striker will therefore not be part of the list of players available to Paulo Fonseca in view of the ‘league phase’ of the new format of the Champions League.
As Calciomercato.com write, it is a choice that is not surprising, especially after the addition of Tammy Abraham, who arrived on loan from Roma in exchange for Alexis Saelemaekers going the other way on the same terms.
The decision not to include Jovic in the list for the Champions League is one that had been taken and shared in advance by the entire staff, then CEO Giorgio Furlani was asked about Jovic in Tammy Abraham’s unveiling press conference.
“Why did we renew Jovic and sign another striker? We have three competitions plus the Super Cup. There are a lot of games, so for us it makes sense to have three strikers,” he said.
Now we are left trying to guess what Jovic’s future might be. The Rossoneri will play over 50 games this season so it is clear that the former Eintracht Frankfurt man should get some games, but it is also clear that his exclusion from the list for the top European competition puts him in a less than comfortable position.
He is firmly the third choice, behind Alvaro Morata and Abraham, which is exactly the fate that he expected after the contract renewal that came this summer. His ambitions were highlighted by his decision to inherit the No.9 shirt from Olivier Giroud.
