At 28, Inter Milan footballer Romelu Lukaku offered himself, Thursday, August 12, a new challenge to Chelsea, where he has already gone from 2011 to 2014, for a near-record amount in the Premier League. “I am happy and blessed to be back in this wonderful club”, said Romelu Lukaku, quoted in a club press release Londoner.
The amount of his transfer, according to the British and Italian press, amounts to around 115 million euros. It would be the second largest sum ever spent by an English club to acquire a player. It even rivals the first: Days earlier, Manchester City lured Aston Villa club’s Jack Grealish for £ 100million, or around € 117million, according to British media estimates.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s runner-up in the Serie A scorers ‘standings last season, with 24 goals, Lukaku could quickly justify the Blues’ record investment. Arrived in 2019 at Inter, the top scorer in the history of the Belgian selection – 64 goals on the clock – notably helped to conquer, in the spring, Inter’s first scudetto since 2010. The Nerazzuri also reached the Europa League final in 2020, finally lost to Sevilla, 3 to 2.
More “experience and maturity”
With such a record, in a championship put in cups regulated by Juventus since 2012, Lukaku saw himself staying in Lombardy. Last week, Lautaro Martinez’s friend in the Milan attack had also told the club channel to want “Accomplish even more”, next season.
But the attraction of Chelsea, outgoing Champions League winner and former club of Didier Drogba, the idol of Lukaku in his younger years, has finally been stronger. “It was a long adventure for me: I came here as a child with a lot to learn, now I come back with a lot of experience and maturity”, Lukaku said.
At Stamford Bridge, where he landed in 2011 from Anderlecht, the Belgian will be keen to leave a more lasting mark than during his first stint, studded with loans with only 15 games on the clock under the Blues jersey. The native of Antwerp knows the English championship well in any case: he has already played for West Bromwich Albion, and especially for Everton and Manchester United, from whom Inter had torn him off in 2019.
Romelu Lukaku returns to London with a new status: young hopeful of European football in 2011, he was, this summer, the priority of the recruitment of the Blues since the extinction of the track leading to the Norwegian Erling Braut Haaland, of Dortmund. He should bring more arguments to the London attack, after the disappointment embodied by the Germans Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, recruited at a gold price during the previous summer transfer window, respectively for nearly 80 million and 60 million euros. .
Financial losses at Inter Milan
For Inter, in lack of cash, the departure of Lukaku is a new blow, after having already let Achraf Hakimi slip away at PSG. The Lombard club recorded losses of 100 million euros during the 2019-2020 season, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Serie A revenue has plunged 18% in said season, according to Deloitte, the biggest decline among the top five European leagues. In financial difficulty, the Suning group, owner of Inter, withdrew from the Chinese club Jiangsu FC, yet national champion, which had to go out of business at the end of February.
In May, however, the Chinese group obtained 275 million euros in funding from the American investor Oaktree Capital, to help the club face its liquidity problems. To straighten out the accounts of the Nerazzuri, Suning also has the ambition to cut spending.
This austerity policy did not please coach Antonio Conte. The former Italy coach terminated his contract with Inter a year before it expired, and was replaced by ex-Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi.
In addition to the coach who brought the national title to Milan, the supporters of Inter have just lost one of their darlings. To replace him, Inter management are reportedly considering Atalanta striker Duvan Zapata, and are close to completing the transfer of Bosnian Edin Dzeko from AS Roma, according to Sky Sports.