Romelu Lukaku will wear the number 90 jersey for Serie A club Inter Milan in a strange move that has generated a lot of discussion among fans.
The 29-year-old striker, who joined Chelsea last season after leaving Inter Milan for a club-record £97.5 million transfer, has returned to the Italian club on a season-long loan.
Inter paid a loan fee of £6.9 million for the Belgian international, plus an additional £3.5 million in bonuses if they win the Scudetto. The Belgian striker is expected to link up with his new teammates in the coming days.
Less than a day after Lukaku sealed the loan move, Inter announced that the Belgian striker will don the number 90 jersey for the 2022–23 season shortly after the agreement was made official.
On their official website, a statement read, “Romelu Lukaku is back in black and blue.” The Belgian striker spoke to Inter TV after landing in Milan and stopping by Inter HQ to meet president Steven Zhang before revealing his new shirt number for the next season: No. 90.
The decision to assign shirt number 90 to Lukaku was a choice that undoubtedly sparked online sarcastic speculations.
One supporter stated: “There is no way. Inter giving Lukaku the number for the amount of money Chelsea wasted on him is next-level sh*thousery.”
Another Fan said: “Romelu Lukaku picking number 90 because that’s how much profit Inter have made from him in just one year,” while a third commented: “Someone said Inter gave Lukaku the number 90 to represent the profit the club made and I’ve been dying laughing since.”
If Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko stays in Milan, Lukaku, who wore the number nine jersey during his last stint at the San Siro, will probably start the season wearing 90.
While donning the number nine jersey, the former Manchester City striker scored 17 goals for the team in the previous campaign.
Why did Romelu Lukaku leave Chelsea?
Lukaku’s claim that he had “unfinished business” at Stamford Bridge, where he made just 15 appearances during his first stint between 2011 and 2014, was one of the factors that led to his return.
Lukaku stated this on the Chelsea website following his club-record £97.5 million transfer from Inter Milan in the previous summer. And yet, just ten months later, the forward has not only fallen short of expectations at Stamford Bridge, but has also requested a loan move back to the Serie A team he just left, and Chelsea have granted it.
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What do you think of the transaction? Was the time and resources truly wasted? Please share your thoughts in the comment area.
