Manchester United have confirmed that Romelu Lukaku has completed a move from Everton after undergoing a medical in Los Angeles, where he'd been spending his holiday with new team mate Paul Pogba.
The Red Devils have had to cough up an initial £75m but could have to pay up to £90m due to different add-ons in his five-year contract, making him the biggest British transfer of all time.
Man Utd fend off Chelsea interest
A striker has been on the top of José Mourinho’s wish list throughout the whole of the transfer window so far, with Real Madrid frontman Álvaro Morata vastly reported to be his favoured option.
But after a summer of the belief that Morata was the number one target to replace Zlatan Ibrahimović next season, it was revealed on Thursday that United had agreed on a fee with Everton for Lukaku.
This led everyone to believe that the club was using the traditional smokescreen tactic while secretly negotiating a deal for the Belgian, snatching him from Chelsea’s grasp which has left manager of the champions Antonio Conte “furious.”
A return to his former club was inevitable, with several different outlets calling Stamford Bridge his preferred destination, but the player’s super agent Mino Raiola seems to have been steering his head towards Old Trafford.
Lukaku unlucky to miss out on 16/17 Golden Boot
That could be down to the millions the 49-year-old - whose clients include Pogba and Mkhitaryan - is receiving from the transfer, however, Lukaku asked ESPN hours before he signed “who would turn down the biggest club in the world?”
The powerful striker bagged 25 Premier League goals for Ronald Koeman’s side last season and narrowly missed out on the Golden Boot award to Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane, who scored seven times in his final two games.
Despite worries about Romelu Lukaku’s record against the bigger teams in the top flight, he’s one of just five attackers in the division’s history to have netted 75 times before the age of 24.
If there’s one thing that Manchester United have lacked over the past few years, it’s goals, and Lukaku is certainly going to bring those as the evolution under Mourinho continues ahead of what promises to be an action-packed 2017/2018 campaign.