Shrunk from giant to miniature, dwarfed in less than a year. Can this be? And if so: how? It was less than twelve months ago that Romelu Lukaku was still considered a giant footballer, not only because of his stature, 1.91 meters tall, 93 kilos. The Belgian is a closet that can hold the speed and punch of a freight train. From zero to one hundred in a few seconds, explosive, strong, determined, equipped with a feel for the situation that is difficult to learn.
“Gigante buono”, the Inter Milan tifosi called him, they loved their good-natured giant. But then that: Lukaku left in August 2021 for allegedly 115 million euros to Chelsea. Inter urgently needed money, in London Lukaku was poured with it. Reported salary: 13 million euros, net. This made him the historic top earner of what was then an oligarch club, in which money was not the most important factor. You had enough of it.
Lukaku returns to Inter on loan – and thus ensures a formidable balance sheet profit
All this is not entirely unimportant considering the images circulating in the Italian media and on social networks on Wednesday morning. You could see Lukaku, grinning and with a black and blue scarf around his neck, the club colors of Inter. The return to the traditional Italian club was reported as perfect in the evening, and he had completed the medical checks in the afternoon. For Inter, everything looks like a formidable deal: a one-year loan with a volume of around twelve million euros, and the striker’s salary has also been reduced to an acceptable level – the big winner is Inter’s balance sheet, without a doubt .
And yet, there are also heated debates about this personality in Italy. Is this the return of a mercenary who ended up crouched at Milan Linate Airport after being overwhelmed by fast-paced English football? Does departure invalidate the merits of yore, or do those merits remain immutable into eternity? The question also looms over everything: How big is he really, the good-natured giant?
Without Lukaku, Inter lost their supremacy in Italy
There are very different views on this topic, perhaps it is mainly due to the emotional closeness or distance to Lukaku, 29. The Italian football experts, who discuss the transfer phase on television and publish their opinions in the gazettes, have started a chorus in which the transfer is sung as “colpo”: a good deal because it is economically prudent and sportingly profitable.
Opinions differ among Inter fans. In Milan, Lukaku was also received by singing and cheering Tifosi, but the hard core has distanced itself from the former crowd favourite. Even before Lukaku’s arrival in Milan, the Ultras from the Curva Nord, Inter’s dreaded fan curve, published a statement. Content: You shouldn’t fall into the trap of “running after Lukaku drooling”, the striker has to work for every little spark of love. “He was supported and treated like royalty, now he’s one of many,” say the Inter-Ultras. They felt humiliated when Lukaku moved on to London, because with him went the feeling of new old greatness: Lukaku was the star in a league full of old stars, he shot Inter with 24 goals this season to their first championship title in more than a decade. Thanks in part to him, the Tifosi Inters believed they would soon be part of the European high society again. Instead, national supremacy was lost without him, and city rivals AC Milan became champions.
Lukaku is a sensitive player who needs attention from the coach and the environment
But even Lukaku was not happy without Inter, the club where he became a player of international stature. In 2019, the Belgian moved to Italy and became the record transfer Inters. And yet he had no confidence in it. Lukaku was worn down by difficult years in England – but he was also the dream player of the then Inter coach Antonio Conte, who cherished and cared for Lukaku like a bird he found injured on the side of the road. Observers agree that the good-natured giant needs attention and yes, that too: love.
He lacked that last season, although Thomas Tuchel made some noise to bring Lukaku to Chelsea. But Tuchel does not tend to have great feelings, his team leadership resembles that of a top-heavy technocrat – and Lukaku himself was only the luxury piece of the puzzle in the squad of a reigning Champions League winner. The player-coach relationship quickly cooled, the sensitive Lukaku became stubborn and scored only eight times in the league. Rather minimal for one they had proclaimed maximum in Italy.
So now Lukaku is back in Milan, and when he arrived he was “overjoyed”. However, the coach at Inter is no longer Antonio Conte, but Simone Inzaghi, and the striker is therefore starting from scratch again: zero goals, zero titles – and little of the affection he used to have.