Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1993, Romelu Menama Lukaku Bolingoli has come a long way in just a few short years, particularly since coming to the Premier League.
In 2011 he signed for Chelsea and, more or less immediately, went on loan to West Bromwich Albion. The following season saw him continue on loan but this time at Everton, the club he eventually signed for in 2014 for what was then the record fee paid by The Toffees of £28 million.
He became one of only five players to score 50 Premier League goals before his 23rd birthday and is only the fourth player to score 80 goals before his 24th. (He is actually the first foreign player to achieve the feat).
In 2017, as the world and his wife are aware, he moved to Manchester United for an initial fee of £75 million.
He made his international debut for Belgium in 2010 and now has more than 50 caps and has appeared at both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 European Championships.
As we said, not too shabby for a kid!
When he decided to leave Everton many people expected him to rejoin Chelsea rather than end up at Old Trafford but it seems that he was tempted to join up again with José Mourinho, even though he had been the one to sell Lukaku in the first place!
This move appeared to result in Chelsea switching their attention to Álvaro Morata, who had been widely expected to join United, and he signed for Chelsea shortly afterwards.
They have both made excellent starts for their new clubs with Morata being particularly impressive given that he is brand new to the Premier League, although spells in Italy and Spain have been good foundations for him.
Now Lukaku has his big chance. He is at a big club where a lot is expected of him. So far it has been reasonably plain sailing for him as United have not played any of the other “big six” teams just yet and that is when he will be more critically judged.
He hasn’t been slow out of the starting blocks though with a goal in his very first game for United, a friendly win against LA Galaxy and then, when the Premier League and Champion’s League kicked off he just carried on scoring.
Lukaku now has six goals in six games in the Premier League, three goals in two games in the Champion’s League and, during the international break, he scored another four for Belgium in the two World Cup qualifiers they played.
So, since joining United, Lukaku has scored a total of thirteen goals in ten competitive games for his new club and his country. (He also scored in the Super Cup final against Real Madrid if any pedants want to include that as a competitive game).
Will his charmed run of goals continue? That is a question to which many people would like the answer. All we can say is that, given the service he is receiving and given how prolific he was at lesser clubs such as Everton and West Bromwich Albion, we see no reason why his goalscoring exploits should not carry on in the same vein and actually improve now he is at United.
Barring injury, suspension or a dramatic loss of form, Lukaku can be expected to score thirty or more Premier League goals this season with even more being added in the cup competitions.
As far as his transfer fee is concerned, as Roy Keane said, it has turned out to be a bargain and shows the value of concluding business early in the transfer window. You just never know when something totally crazy, such as Neymar going to PSG, is going to happen and throw the whole system into confusion.
The general perception is that the Neymar deal added an average of around £20 million to the transfer fees originally being asked for some very average players.
So, onwards and upwards. The right manager is in place at Old Trafford and he is putting the right team together as well. With Romelu Lukaku scoring the goals, ably assisted by some of the others, United fans can once again look forward to an ever-expanding trophy cabinet.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 