Football – Premier League: Romelu Lukaku, a comeback and a revenge to be taken at Chelsea

“Romelu Lukaku is coming home”. In a title reminiscent of the English epic at the Euro this summer, Chelsea formalized a transfer that has never ceased to spill ink in recent weeks: that of the Belgian striker considered one of the best number 9 in the Old Continent.

Three seasons at Chelsea, only 15 games played

The amount of the transaction with Inter Milan, a club where he arrived two years ago and where he will have silenced a lot of bad tongues, estimated at 115 million euros, also says the desire of the London club to s ‘attach the services of the serial scorer he had yet let go in 2014 almost indifferent, after three seasons where he played only 15 matches and especially shone elsewhere on loan.

For the top scorer in the history of the Belgian selection (63 goals), it is therefore a comeback, and he intends to take his revenge after a first passage far from his expectations. When he arrives in the English capital from Anderlecht, where he was formed, in 2011, at the age of 18, with the status of great hope, Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea fan since his childhood – “the bond that I have with this club means so much to me” he said then – imagine walking in the footsteps of Didier Drogba, legend of the club and idol of the Belgian.

A start by the back door in Everton

But the one who would certainly have liked to lift the first Champions League in the history of the Blues with the Ivorian a year after his signing sees history playing a bad turn. Unwanted by André Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benitez and José Mourinho, he has little, if at all, the opportunity to speak in front of the stands at Stamford Bridge, except with the jersey of another top English club.

Yet author of 17 goals and 7 assists at West Bromwich Albion in 2012/2013 then 15 pawns and 8 offerings with Everton the following year, Lukaku, who does not mope about his successive loans, does not enter the plans and logically joined the Toffees, for 35 million euros, club record at the time, after the World Cup in Brazil. An injury for the Belgian tank at meter 91, at the time too often considered a player in deficit in the game and technically not reliable enough.

Critics in England, the response in Italy

His stint at Manchester United, where his main feat of arms is to inflict a humiliation that remains in the memories of PSG by planting a double at the Park during the round of 16 return against the Red Devils (1-3), further degrades a little more its rating across the Channel. In particular his last exercise, in 2018/19, where he scored only 15 goals in 45 games, in all competitions.

As usual, the English media do not hesitate to scratch Lukaku, and criticism is raining, especially on the physical condition of the native of Antwerp. The most famous of the consultants of the perfidious Albion, Gary Lineker, evokes on social networks a player “overweight who weighs more than 100 kilos” with a “contagious lack of professionalism”. The fans do not miss a thing, they who take advantage of each control or failed sequence of the Belgian to make his ears whistle.

The Mancuniens decide to send him to Inter for a nice sum (a little less than 75 million euros), then putting an end to Lukaku’s adventure in the Premier League. A sad epilogue that finally served the 28-year-old striker, who, with the unconditional support of Antonio Conte, who had already tried to attract him to … Chelsea when he was coach of the Blues, will roll on the Serie A and establish itself as a reference for his position.

With 64 goals in 95 matches with the Nerazzurri, in all competitions, he allows his club not only to go to the Europa League final (lost 2-3 against Sevilla FC) in 2020, but also to put an end to the national hegemony of Juventus last season and to offer their first Italian league title to the Lombard club in 11 years.

A nice snub to all detractors of the Belgian: “A year ago, when I was in England, [on disait que] “I was lazy, I wasn’t running, I wasn’t doing this or that”. Here they talk about me as the hardest worker in the locker room “, Lukaku replied to the Times in October 2020. And the player to continue: “If you look at me now you see a different result and you see the full potential. You see what I could have done in England.”.