One of the longest transfer sagas of the 2024 summer transfer window is finally over: Romelu Lukaku will play for Napoli in the 2024/25 season as the Azzurri have now reached an agreement with Chelsea for the Belgian striker, according to multiple reports. Lukaku. who is now 31 years old, will join Napoli after the Italian side agreed a fee of €30 million plus add-ons worth around €15 million with the English team and will make his third return to Serie A after playing for Inter and then AS Roma on loan last season.
Lukaku will sign a three-year contract until the summer of 2027 and will earn around €8 million per season. by Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio. Big Rom will reunite with his mentor and former coach Antonio Conte, who really wanted him to join Napoli this summer, as the Italian club decided to part with Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen, who is officially still on the roster, but is not included in the selection. from now on. Napoli initially waited to sell Osimhen before signing Lukaku, but with the Osimhen situation still at neutral, the Azzurri accelerated the signing of Lukaku in the final week of the summer transfer window.
Conte first wanted to sign Lukaku when he was at Chelsea, but he ended up signing for Manchester United in the summer of 2017. Two years later, when Conte joined Inter, Lukaku became the main target for the Nerazzurri and eventually signed with the Italian side after Juventus tried to hijack the deal. Again, two years later, Inter sold Lukaku to Chelsea in the summer of 2021, after Conte also left the club, for a record fee of €115 million. The period at Chelsea was not successful at all and Lukaku made his comeback to Inter a year later on a rental basis.
The Lukaku saga at Inter did not end well. Inter and Chelsea agreed a deal for a permanent transfer in the summer of 2023, but the striker decided not to sign for the Nerazzurri, leaving both clubs speechless. A few weeks later, AS Roma and his former manager Jose Mourinho managed to get him on a season-long loan from Chelsea. Lukaku earned a lot expected comeback at San Siro a few months later he played against his former teammates and fans.
Now, after another difficult summer, the Belgian striker was given the opportunity to play again under his mentor Conte, who was keen to work with his favorite striker again after winning the Scudetto together at Inter in 2021. The question now is: will they be able to recreate that successful collaboration at Napoli? Meanwhile, the club must now find a solution for Osimhen in the final week of the transfer window to avoid a disastrous situation where the absent striker remains stuck on the books.
