Vlahovic injury prompts Barcelona to look elsewhere for Lewandowski replacement

According to Sport, the injury Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic picked up recently has made Barcelona cross his name off their list of potential long-term replacements for Robert Lewandowski. The 25-year-old left the pitch with an adductor problem just 31 minutes into Juve’s clash with Cagliari at the end of November and is expected to miss several months of action.

Vlahovic is in the final year of contract with Juventus, and that, along with his age, had been a major appeal with the Catalans looking for a new hitman to compete with Ferran Torres for the role of leading their attacking line. On the other hand, his salary, believed to be €12million per season at Juventus, was already an obstacle from Barcelona’s point of view.

Furthermore, Barcelona apparently consider Vlahovic’s output this season (eight goals and two assists in 20 competitive matches) as “modest figures”.

With Barcelona out, AC Milan are leading the race for the Serbia international, though there have been notions from other sources that Milan were leading the race even before Barcelona gave up, and that the fact that he was likely to join the Rossoneri played a major role in Barcelona’s decision to start looking elsewhere.