Romelu Lukaku stops Chelsea from signing €60m star

Cameron Smith

11 Sept 2023 13:43 BST
4 min read

Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea, 2023/24 — © ProShots

Romelu Lukaku prevented Chelsea from signing Manchester City star Jeremy Doku during the youngster’s time at Anderlecht, according to academy director Jean Kindermans.

Article continues under the video

Doku, now 21, made waves during his spell at Anderlecht and caught Chelsea’s eye, who were keen on signing him as a 15-year-old.

However, Lukaku stepped in and persuaded Doku to reject the Blues’ advances in favour of continuing his development in Belgium.

Lukaku joined Chelsea from Anderlecht aged just 18 and he struggled to break into the first-team at Stamford Bridge, with loan moves to West Bromwich Albion and Everton vital in launching his career.

In fact, Lukaku’s miss in Chelsea’s penalty shootout loss against Bayern Munich in the 2013 Super Cup led to him requesting time away from the club to develop. He never played for Chelsea again before he re-joined the club in 2021.

Belgium’s all-time record goalscorer was therefore keen for Doku to avoid the same mistake he made as a teenager.

© ProShots - Jeremy Doku joined Man City in 2023

What did Lukaku say?

Kindermans spoke to the Sunday Mirror about Lukaku’s role in Doku remaining at Anderlecht despite Chelsea interest and, as per the Evening Standard, revealed: “I remember taking Romelu into my office about the problem of getting young players to commit to us – Doku in particular.

“Romelu replied, ‘Come on, pass your phone to me, I’m going to call him’.

“But I didn’t want to do that because a phone call gets quickly forgotten. So, instead, I got Romelu to convince Jeremy to stay.

“I still have the video on my phone. On it, you can hear Romelu giving advice to the Doku family, saying ‘Hey, guys, stay with Anderlecht for a while, you’re good’ and so on.”

Doku made his first-team debut at Anderlecht one year later before he earned a move to Stade Rennais for €26 million in 2020. The winger, who has 15 senior Belgium caps, then joined Man City for €60m this summer.