Striker who Mikel Arteta once told Arsenal to sign now available for free, Lionel Messi called him ‘magical’

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Since he arrived at Arsenal in 2019, Mikel Arteta has arguably only signed one out-and-out striker.

In 2022, Arsenal signed Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City, and a year later they also picked up Kai Havertz from Chelsea.

And whilst Jesus is considered to be a fairly traditional centre-forward, Havertz is far from that himself — a player who is often referred to as a ‘false nine’.

Either way, it’s clear that Arsenal haven’t focused enough of their resources towards goalscorers to date, especially during the Arteta era.

And whilst Arsenal are ‘making progress’ in their striker hunt right now, an old name linked with the Gunners has just stepped back into the spotlight somewhat.

Former Arsenal target Luka Jovic is now available on a free transfer

AC Milan have just confirmed that 27-year-old Luka Jovic will be leaving the club on a free transfer upon the expiration of his contract.

Prior to joining AC Milan two years ago, Real Madrid paid more than £50m to sign Jovic from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2019, a player who was considered to have all the potential in the world at the time.

READ MORE: £54m player who Mikel Arteta has been messaging is now in London and ready to sign for Arsenal

However, things didn’t quite work out as planned for Jovic in Spain, hence why Arteta spotted an opportunity to sign the striker in 2022.

According to reports at the time, Arteta was trying to convince Arsenal to sign Jovic, even though he had only scored three goals in 49 appearances for Real Madrid.

It was claimed that “Arteta believes he can get him firing goals again”, a hypothesis that was unfortunately never tested.

Instead, Arsenal went on to sign Jesus from Man City that summer as mentioned, and Jovic himself moved to Fiorentina in Italy on a free transfer.

Luka Jovic isn’t the striker to save the day for Arsenal despite Lionel Messi praise

Of course, it goes without saying that Jovic wouldn’t be the striker to help Arsenal right now, hence why AC Milan are willing to part ways with the 27-year-old.

For Milan last season the Serbia international made only 17 appearances, scoring four goals. 

And perhaps in line with Arteta’s excitement about Jovic’s talent back then, Lionel Messi once actually described the former Red Star striker as ‘magical’ talent.

Back in 2020, Messi was asked by Topps Champions League cards to name the top 15 ‘youth on the rise’ players.

And when picking Jovic, Messi said: “A magical player who makes the impossible, possible.”

It remains to be seen what is next for Jovic, but in terms of Arteta’s requests today, Arsenal have chosen their main striker target for the summer ahead.