Half an hour flies by in Romelu Lukaku’s captivating company. The
Everton striker pauses to consider only one answer and that is when asked whether he genuinely believes he can be superior to Sergio Agüero, whose potent ability he can measure up close at Goodison Park on Sunday. “Yes,” he eventually replies with index fingers on chin and a slow nod of the head. “Yes.”
Lukaku’s admission may read as arrogance. So, too, the assertion he can dominate the impending physical battle against Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala in a manner Diego Costa furiously failed to do for Lukaku’s former club Chelsea last Sunday. “I am taller than them, I am bigger than them so I am not scared. I know if we use my pace and I win the physical battles I will have a good game,” he says. Yet there is little trace of arrogance in the 22-year-old.
Fierce ambition, however, is unmistakable. It stems from the mind-set Roger Lukaku encouraged after ending his career in the Belgian leagues to concentrate on the professional aspirations of his sons, Romelu and Jordan. The Everton forward and Ostend left-back were six and five years old at the time.
“If you want to be one of the best you have to look at the best,” explains Lukaku. “For me at the moment that’s men like Diego Costa and Agüero. Costa because he has that combativity. He terrorises defences just with a look in his opponent’s eye. With Agüero he can run in behind, come to feet, hold the ball, dribble past a few players. That is what I like. You have to look at these players and think ‘What do you have that I don’t?’ and add it to your game. I have the potential but it has to come out.
“I want that competition. I want to fight. I will look at someone who’s in front of me, someone who’s better, like Agüero, and think what do they have that’s better than me because I want to be better than them. If you don’t have ambition to be one of the best, someone will always come and take your place. There are a million players in the world who want to play in the Premier League, or even just be in the squad, so why not have that ambition?”
But better than the two former Atlético Madrid strikers who ended their first seasons in English football as Premier League champions? “Yes, because I can see a pass sometimes,” Lukaku says. “If that comes out on a consistent basis then I can add that to my size, power and pace.”
It is some claim from a player criticised for several subdued displays last season yet described as “unplayable” by Roberto Martínez last Saturday after a
two-goal outing at Southampton, a performance Lukaku rated in his top three for Everton. Martínez’s team notably utilised the strengths of their £28m record signing at St Mary’s. “When we play at a high-tempo constantly that suits me because I’m a player that likes to be on the move all the time instead of being static and that is what we tried to work on in pre-season,” he says.
There is more to the Belgium international’s confidence and productivity than a well-executed team plan. Off the pitch he feels contented again following the hardest period in his life, experiences overlooked as Everton toiled last season.
Lukaku opens up: “When I signed for Everton permanently my father was very ill and I was not in a good place because of that. My father has always been a big influence in my life. Whenever I have a bit of time off I go home and stay with my parents as much as I can. I am alone here and when my father was ill it was very difficult for me. The club knew about the situation and that I was going home all the time to see if he was all right.
“When he was better I started to play well in December, although I also started the season with a few injuries and there were games when I didn’t have to play but I wanted to play to help the team. I had four injections in my foot before the Arsenal and Chelsea games. Then my friend Junior [Malanda] died as well [the 20-year-old Wolfsburg midfielder was killed in a car crash in January]. He was very close to me and my family and I really wasn’t good at that time.
“Personally last year was my most difficult year. It’s true for a footballer that if your life is good off the pitch, you can give that 20% more but for me, at my young age, I discovered there are some things you don’t know how to handle. People associate the footballer with the glamour but we have a life as well. For me family has always been more important than football. The most important thing for me is that my parents and my brother are fine. That is the first thing on my mind when I wake up every day.”
Professionally Lukaku’s first season at Chelsea ranks as his lowest point. “When you’re 18 and leave your family and go to such a massive club and don’t play for a whole year, it does a lot to you,” he says of a Stamford Bridge career that began with talk of a Didier Drogba succession but ended after 10 Premier League appearances and no goals. The striker is well placed to advise John Stones on potentially making the opposite move from Goodison to south-west London, although it is Everton, not Chelsea, who shape Lukaku’s warning to José Mourinho’s transfer target
“John is in a good situation at a good club that believes in him,” he says. “He is playing and learning a lot from Phil Jagielka. He’s been here two years now but this is the year when he needs to confirm he is the top player he can be. This club has massive potential with the players we have and the ambition the manager has. He is on to a good thing. We are young but we have a lot of potential. We had a great first year when I came here and last year was very, very tough but we will learn from it. The Southampton game showed that. John is in a good situation and he needs to keep doing what he’s doing. He also has the Euros coming up [with England]. Why go?”
However, Lukaku rejects the notion that young players are destined to struggle at Chelsea given the demand for immediate results. “No, it is really up to you as a player,” he states. “When you go to Chelsea at a young age it’s up to you if you want to survive. Sometimes it depends on the situation, too.”
But it never worked out for you? “I made the decision to leave. I chose,” he says. “I thought: ‘I’m 21, what is going to happen now?’ I could easily have stayed at Chelsea to fight for my place but I didn’t know what the manager’s ideas were with me and I didn’t know what the club’s plan was for me. Here the plan was clear – bring young players over, grow them into top players and win titles along the way. I saw myself as part of that, so that’s why I signed here on a permanent deal.”
Intelligent, articulate and honest, Lukaku leaves the distinct impression there might be one significant obstacle to his ambition of surpassing the best strikers in the game, particularly in the context of Costa. Namely, he might be too nice. He laughs at the back-handed compliment and admits: “Costa plays on the edge. I’m not on the edge but if I get the ball and start running, just get out of the way because you’ll be on the floor.
“I’ve always kept myself under control. The only time I can lose control is when I play with friends in the neighbourhood in Brussels. Every summer one of the older lads from the Congolese community organises a tournament and we play in a cage like that [he points to an enclosed five-a-side pitch at Everton’s Finch Farm training ground].
“It’s a mix of Belgium first division players, academy players and friends. My brother plays, Dedryck Boyata [of Celtic] used to play and Junior used to play. This summer we reached the semi-final but lost on penalties. My friends wouldn’t let me take a penalty; they said they would take them instead. Normally everybody stays to watch the final but I just said: ‘Guys, put all your kit in the bag, I’m off.’ I just took off. I was hugely disappointed.”
