Romelu Lukaku

[juanes]

Club:RSC Anderlecht

Nationality:Belgium

Age:16

Height:1.92 m / 6.3 ft

Weight:95 kg / 209 lbs

Position:Striker

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=30470&d=1264379634

At just 16-years-old, the opening weeks of the 2009/2010 season have seen Romelu Lukaku emerge as potentially one of the best strikers in the world over the next few years. Even now he is already well known to the biggest clubs in European football and is likely to be the subject of much transfer speculation in the coming months.

 

Lukaku was born in Antwerp, but has Congolese origin, his father was the former professional football player Roger Lukaku. In all the youth teams Romelu played for he scored more goals then the games he played. When he was six-years-old he joined Lierse and played there until he was 12. At Lierse he scored 130 goals in 68 games. Then he moved for one year to Brussels and since then he has been at Anderlecht.

 

His first appearance in the Jupiler Pro League came late on in the second leg of the play-off decider for the championship against Standard Liege. This goes some way to illustrating the standing of Lukaku at Anderlecht, that they were willing to throw him on to change the destination of the title with twenty minutes of the season remaining,

 

In the early weeks of this season Lukaku has established himself as a first choice starter at Anderlecht. Since the beginning of the season he has played 14 games in the Pro League and Europa League, scoring six goals.

 

Along with Mbark Boussoufa, Lukaku is one of the best attacking players in the Anderlecht team and the cooperation between these two has been impressive. Lukaku also became the youngest player to appear in the Champions League at age 16, against Lyon in the qualification matches which Anderlecht lost heavily to the French giants.

 

Lukaku’s physique is something to be amazed by. He is only 16-years-old but has the height of a basketball player (1.92m/6.3ft) and the strength of a wrestler (95kg/209lbs). He is predominantly left footed but is equally adept with both and can also score with his right.

 

Due to his physical prowess, Lukaku is very strong in the air, which is almost unheard of for such a young player. His two most recent goals, in the victories over Mechelen and Lokeren, were both scored with his head.

 

Thanks to some incredible performances so early on in his career, Lukaku has established himself as the new phenomenon of European football. Several teams from Europe have already started to show an interest in the young striker. Chelsea offered Lukaku and his father one million euros to join the Premier League giants but Anderlecht have vowed to hold on to Lukaku for as long as it is in his best interests.

 

Real Madrid, AC Milan and Manchester United have also been linked with a move for Lukaku and last month Arsene Wenger sent former Arsenal captain Tony Adams to run the rule over the youngster in the 2-0 win over Charleroi.

 

Yet, Lukaku has already said that he will not leave soon, he signed his first contract this year until 2012, and he has already shown with Chelsea that it will take more than money for him to move in the near future.

 

Anderlecht will want to keep their treasure for as long as possible, and they know that if he will continue to grow and improve, as long as they keep him, they will get more money for him when he eventually does move on.