Romelu Lukaku has rubbed shoulders with very great attackers in his career, such as Fernando Torres at Chelsea, a late Didier Drogba at the Blues, Alexis Sanchez at Manchester United and Inter Milan, then Lautaro Martinez at the Nerazzurri, with whom he formed an exceptional offensive duo. But the Belgian striker, in an interview published in the new special issue of So Foot
on the number 9, praises Nicolas Anelka, the most attacking ” strong “ with whom he played during his career. Quite simply.
Arriving at Chelsea in 2011, Lukaku loved seeing the former French international at work (before the Trappist left for China in January 2012): “Anelka really caught my eye. I saw Ronaldo on TV, but him, wow! On pure phases, volleys, passing, control, strikes, it’s so fluid… And his dribbling, three players in a space of five square meters, he could eliminate them in two hooks. He was elegant. I have never seen such a strong attacker. » Anelka had his best season with CFC two years earlier (25 goals in 2008-2009).
Anelka but also Terry, Lampard and Drogba!
A giant from an early age, Lukaku was upgraded to Anderlecht’s youth teams before being launched into the Belgian D1 at the age of 16 in 2009. He scored 41 goals in 98 matches over two seasons with the Mauves before being bought by Chelsea for 20 million euros. The striker was only 18 years old when he joined a team which had become a European powerhouse under the leadership of José Mourinho until 2007 (André Villas-Boas was in charge at the start of the 2011-2012 financial year).
Lukaku thus mentions the team’s captains John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba: “I learned a lot. There was Didier Drogba next to me in the locker room. He looked at you and you knew you were going to fight for him, because he was the first one to fight for the group. There was Lampard, incredible, fully in training. I worked on the finishing with him,”Rom, you stay, we’re going to shoot on goal”. Terry, in -5 degrees, he is in shorts and t-shirt in training, (Branislav) Ivanovic the same thing…”
