Lukaku ends Chelsea nightmare with reported €30M move to Napoli

Romelu Lukaku brought a merciful end to a miserable second spell with Chelsea on Thursday after completing a permanent transfer to Napoli.

The deal cost Napoli around €30 million, according to transfer insider Fabrizio Romano.

Lukaku is officially done with the Blues after spending the last two seasons on loan at Inter Milan and Roma. Chelsea cut their losses on one of their most expensive signings, having spent a reported €115 million to sign him from Inter in 2021.

The move reunites Lukaku with manager Antonio Conte, who coached the Belgian international at Inter, and could prompt Chelsea to sign Napoli’s Victor Osimhen as a replacement.

“Welcome, Romelu,” Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis posted on X.

Napoli are the eighth club of Lukaku’s journeyman career. He has cost them a combined €369 million in transfer fees, according to transfermarkt.com.

Lukaku pushed hard to return to Chelsea shortly after winning Serie A with Conte’s Inter in May 2021. At the time, he said he felt “blessed to be back at this wonderful club,” having played just 15 times for the west London side between 2011-14.

However, the 31-year-old quickly ran into issues with Chelsea’s then-manager Thomas Tuchel and faced limited action. He then criticized the German’s tactics during an unauthorized interview with Sky Italia and called on Inter to re-sign him.

Lukaku scored just 13 goals in 42 appearances for Chelsea before rejoining Inter in 2022 on loan. His return there didn’t go to plan, either, and the Nerazzurri cut ties altogether when reports emerged that Lukaku’s camp was in talks over a move to rival Juventus ahead of the 2023-24 season.

The striker joined Roma toward the end of last summer despite reported interest from Saudi Arabia but managed just 13 Serie A goals there and returned to Chelsea in July. Like many of the club’s outcasts, Lukaku was forced to train with the U21s until finding an exit.

Now he’ll get a chance to reignite his career under Conte, who coaxed 24 league goals out of Lukaku during Inter’s Scudetto-winning 2021 campaign.