Chelsea have agreed a season-long loan deal with Roma for Romelu Lukaku. The Serie A side will pay £8m to take the striker for a year, with a solution to the standoff between the player and the Premier League club finally in sight.
There is no obligation for Roma to make the deal permanent but they will cover the Belgian’s salary totalling €7.5m over 10 months. Roma’s billionaire owner, Dan Friedkin, will himself pilot a private flight from London to the Italian capital on Tuesday, with Lukaku due to arrive about 4pm BST.
The uncertainty surrounding Lukaku, who joined Chelsea for £97.5m in 2021 but scored only eight Premier League goals in 26 games before being loaned out to Internazionale last season, has hung over the early weeks of Mauricio Pochettino’s time in charge. The manager hinted last week that he would be willing to consider reintegrating the Belgium international into his squad if no deal for him to leave could be reached before Friday’s transfer deadline.
But that impasse was averted on Monday night after a deal was struck for the 30-year-old, who spent three years on Chelsea’s books between 2011-14 but made just 10 appearances between loan spells at West Brom and Everton, to join up with the former Blues manager José Mourinho in Rome.