In an effort to refresh the attack, Atletico has asked to buy Girona striker Artem Dovbyk and they are about to achieve their goal. The question is, what is so special about the Ukrainian’s foot that Atletico is interested in?
The deal is about to be completed
According to Mundo Deportivo, it is only a matter of time before Dovbyk leaves Girona to join Atletico. To own a powerful striker like a bull from Girona, Atletico’s Board of Directors is willing to spend 40 million euros.
When they first approached Dovbyk, Atletico’s board of directors hoped to buy Dnipro at a cheaper price. However, with the new season less than a month away, Atletico’s board of directors finally had to act decisively.
Instead of “continuing to bargain for one less or two more”, they understand that there is not much time left for shopping so it is better to try to close the Dovbyk deal as soon as possible. When the parties have basically reached a consensus, coach Diego Simeone now no longer has to worry about finding replacements for Alvaro Morata and Memphis Depay. This pair of famous strikers who just attended EURO 2024 will not continue to contribute to Atletico next season.
Spectacular numbers
Girona has just had an extremely successful season, finishing in 3rd place on the La Liga rankings. The fact that the “dark horse” Girona achieved such high results owes a great deal to Dovbyk. Even in his first season playing football in the land of bullfighting, the left-footed player with a height of 1m89 scored 24 goals. This number is not too high, but it is enough to help him win the title of top scorer in 2023/24.
To see how much value Dovbyk brings to Girona, we should know that in the past 15 years, only a player who did not play for Barca or Real won the Pichichi title. It also needs to be added that just a year ago Girona only bought Dovbyk from Dnipro-1 for a mere 7.7 million euros. Based on the fact that in Girona’s history, no player has been bought at a high price like Dovbyk, it is clear that this striker’s profit margin is too impressive. Indeed, just by transferring Dovbyk to Atletico, Girona will earn money 5 times higher than the investment cost.
The reason why Atletico accepted to buy Dovbyk at such a high price is because their goal is to play very effectively. With 32 goals scored in La Liga last season, Dovbyk ranked only behind Harry Kane (contributed to 44 goals), Kylian Mbappe (34) and Cole Palmer (33) in the top 5 national leagues in Europe. Europe.
In addition, Dovbyk also had 203 touches of the ball in the opponent’s penalty area in La Liga 2023/24. This is the third highest index in the entire tournament after Rodrygo (222) and VinÃcius (221).
Notably, no player has received as many crosses in La Liga 2023/24 as Dovbyk (40). Although he scored 6 goals with his head, Dovbyk is not the type of striker who only knows how to live thanks to aerial combat. The proof is that he is named in the Top 10 La Liga 2023/24 in both number of shots (85) and number of shots on goal (46). Finally, Dovbyk is the player who needs the second least average time to score a goal in La Liga after Sorloth (108 minutes/goal compared to 109 minutes/goal). With what has been shown, it is not surprising that Dovbyk is in Simeone’s “sight”, the coach especially favors strikers who are good at taking chances in the penalty area.
