Sportorn is Designed to Keep You Up-to-Date with Everything You Need to Know About the World of Sport.
⎯ 《 Sportorn • Com 》

Romelu Lukaku's agent blasts Saudi Pro League for difficult summer

2023-09-10 19:48
Romelu Lukaku's agent speaks on the Saudi Pro League's spending making it more difficult to secure a transfer away from Chelsea.
Romelu Lukaku's agent blasts Saudi Pro League for difficult summer

The agent of Romelu Lukaku claims the arrival of the Saudi Pro League as a force in the transfer market made it difficult to secure a summer move for the Belgium striker.

Lukaku rejoined Chelsea in 2021 for a then club-record £97.5m but fell out with manager Thomas Tuchel and spent last season on loan with former side Inter.

The 30-year-old was expected to return to the Nerazzurri in another permanent exit from Stamford Bridge but negotiations collapsed when it emerged talks had been held with other clubs, including rivals Juventus.

Juve offered a swap deal that involved Dusan Vlahovic but nothing further materialised. Interest from Saudi Arabia never interested Lukaku, who wanted to remain in Europe, and he eventually reunited with former boss Jose Mourinho by joining Roma on loan.

READ THE LATEST NEWS FROM 90MIN'S TALKING TRANSFERS TEAM

Sebastien Ledure, Lukaku's representative, has now revealed how the Saudi Pro League's summer of mass spending made it trickier to secure a move away from England for his client.

He told RTL: "It was very difficult, even impossible at the start of the transfer window, to talk about a loan solution.

"And what the owners of Chelsea were looking for was above all to find a definitive solution, a transaction, a permanent transfer. And the real change that happened this summer was the arrival of Saudi clubs on the international transfer market.

"They have set the bar so high in terms of the transfer compensation offered to European clubs and in this case to Chelsea, that it has become very difficult for European clubs to line up and therefore on the one hand, you have a club that is not opposed to a transfer.

"On the other hand, they are going to seek the maximum transfer fee which obviously, in this case, it was only the Saudi clubs that could achieve such large amounts."

Lukaku made his Roma debut before the international break in a 2-1 loss to AC Milan and started in Belgium's Euro 2024 qualifying win in Azerbaijan on Saturday.

LISTEN NOW TO 90MIN'S TALKING TRANSFERS PODCAST

On this edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Graeme Bailey to discuss Al Ittihad's attempts to sign Mohamed Salah, Jadon Sancho's Man Utd future, the players that could still leave the Premier League and more!

If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!

This article was originally published on 90min as Romelu Lukaku's agent blasts Saudi Pro League for difficult summer.