Inside Romelu Lukaku’s roller-coaster journey to Roma،
Romelu Lukaku is now 30 years old and even at his advanced age for a footballer, he still surprises some of those who know him best, and not always in a good way. The Belgian international is one of the best strikers in Europe. He scores goals, often in the box, with one touch, using his strength and pace.
However, he can be unpredictable off the field, as he showed last summer. To think that Lukaku signs with Roma to become the club’s new number 1. August 9 surprised everyone, to put it mildly. At no point, until the end of the transfer window, did the possibility of him joining Jose Mourinho present itself.
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Lukaku’s signing for Roma has to be one of the strangest transfers involving a top European player in recent years. Roma is a big club, but they do not participate in the Champions League. They have little hope of winning Serie A. Their main ambition is to finish fourth in an attempt to return to the Champions League for the first time in five years. While this decision doesn’t make much sense, it was also the only option available to Lukaku.
Inter Milan, where he spent last season on loan from Chelsea (37 games, 14 goals in all competitions) wanted to keep him, particularly after the departure of Edin Dzeko to Fenerbahce and even with the arrival of Marcus Thuram. Meanwhile, Juventus were considering him as a replacement for Dusan Vlahovic. Juventus and Chelsea have had brief conversations over Lukaku but a deal has been difficult to reach.
Roc Nation, then representing Lukaku, offered the Belgian to PSG, who were not interested because he had other projects (they recruited two other attackers last summer, Goncalo Ramos and Randal Kolo Muani), and to Bayern Munich, who preferred Harry Kane. , a decision they do not regret after the England international’s brilliant debut in the Bundesliga.
On the other hand, Sébastien Ledure, Lukaku’s personal lawyer, also received a massive offer from Saudi Arabia which did not interest the player.
But Rome? Really?
At the time, Roc Nation represented Lukaku. What began as a PR-only collaboration in March 2018 when Federico Pastorello, the Italian agent, was its representative on the ground, had now become a full-fledged representation agreement. The American agency negotiated hard with Chelsea to make the loan to Inter permanent. That’s what they thought Lukaku wanted, but that wasn’t the case.
In London, Lukaku lived in a luxury apartment with Andrea Opi, his manager from Roc Nation and one of his best friends. However, Lukaku could still remain secret. The Sky Italia interview criticizing Thomas Tuchel, his manager at Chelsea at the time? Behind Opi and everyone is back. His direct conversations with Juventus? All himself. They came on his own initiative, always behind Roc Nation’s back. While they were doing their job to try to find Lukaku a way to leave Chelsea, he was ignoring their calls and doing his own thing without telling them.
This was at the heart of Roc Nation’s abandonment of Lukaku. Tensions were at their peak last summer, with Ledure’s role and influence on the player being incompatible with the agency’s work. Juventus was Ledure’s idea, despite comments the striker made in 2021.
Lukaku said: “Juventus or AC Milan? Never, never. In Italy, there is only Inter for me.” Then, Lukaku started ghosting his former teammates. Calls from Lautaro Martínez? Not picked up. Fede Di Marco’s wedding? Not assisted.
With Chelsea and Inter never managing to agree despite two permanent transfer offers from the Italians, it was clear the transfer was dead. So it was Roma and Mourinho, helped massively by the good relations between the American owners of each club, Dan Friedkin on the Roma side and Todd Boehly on the Chelsea side.
“Mourinho called Romelu several times during the last days of the transfer window. He really wanted him to be with him again and Rom appreciated the love,” a source told ESPN. Lukaku and Mourinho worked together at Chelsea in 2011, but it didn’t work out. And then back to Manchester United in 2017 for 18 months. But a third time?
“Lukaku wanted to go to a club where he would be the star, the main player. At Inter, the fans loved him but Lautaro became the favorite and many felt that Lukaku’s misses cost them the League final of Champions”, explains the same. source. In private, Mourinho himself repeats that the Belgian needs to be loved and to feel important.
This perhaps explains why, at 30, he changed clubs nine times in his career. At Chelsea, Tuchel never gave it to him, that’s not what he does. Now Mourinho is doing it. In the Italian capital, RL9 is loved and reborn after scoring six goals in 10 Serie A games, and three in four in the Europa League. And all this in a team that does not play attacking football.
In the Belgian national team, he scores for fun (83 goals in 113 caps) and maintains positive relations with new coach Domenico Tedesco. Back at home, Lukaku is the golden boy. Everyone loves him, from fans to Tedesco to the president of the Belgian Federation. And the national team, despite the disappointment of not having won anything on the international scene yet, is still a breath of fresh air for him, among all the difficult times he has gone through.
It’s a big season for him. If he succeeds in Rome and shines at the Euros next summer with his country, then everything that happened last summer will be forgotten and people will once again talk about him as one of the best.
