Real Madrid's Jovic woe shows how hard Ronaldo is to replace
Robin Bairner
- 9 Jul 2022 08:23 BST
- 3 min read
As Manchester United are considering how to deal with Cristiano Ronaldo’s push to leave the club, they should cast a glance at Real Madrid to see the difficulty of replacing the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
On Friday, Los Blancos sent Luka Jovic to Fiorentina on a free transfer. The Serbia international had three years left on his contract at the Bernabeu and signed from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2019, at which point he appeared to be European football’s next great striker.
Worse, reports suggest that Real Madrid will be footing 50% of his salary for the next two years, a hangover from a transfer that all at the club will want to forget.
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Real Madrid got lucky
It is difficult to overstate the influence that Ronaldo had with Real Madrid, where he became their leading scorer of all time, won multiple Champions League titles and set the foundation even for the team that was victorious over Liverpool in May as they picked up a 14th European Cup.
A year after Ronaldo had left Spain for Juventus, Los Blancos signed Jovic as the long-term replacement of the Portuguese. They were lucky, however, in that they also had Karim Benzema to call upon.
President Florentino Perez could scarcely have dreamed that Benzema would have thrived to the manner in which he has without Ronaldo by his side – the Frenchman is the Ballon d’Or favourite after coming off a season in which he scored 44 times in 46 matches, leading the club to La Liga and Champions League success.
Real Madrid were lucky that Benzema was waiting in the wings; Manchester United have no such calibre of player remotely capable of making that step up. Beyond Ronaldo, the goalscoring numbers for United make grim reading for last season. Bruno Fernandes hit 10 in all competitions, the only other player to make double figures, Mason Greenwood, who is out of the picture for well-documented reasons, got six, while Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford bagged five each.
According to the Athletic, Man Utd are stepping up their campaign to find a replacement for Ronaldo. It is said that the Red Devils are presently sounding out options by making phone calls.
As they do so, they should bear in mind the difficulty of finding someone to fill such boots. Jovic had scored prolifically for Frankfurt before making the move to Spain and looked a sure-fire bet to succeed. Instead, he leaves having found the net just three times in three seasons, virtually a forgotten figure.
Having finished sixth in the Premier League last season, Man Utd have no room for error. Failure to find the right player to replace Ronaldo could set them back years. Real Madrid were fortunate to have Benzema to fall back upon; the Red Devils have no such luxury.
