Romelu Lukaku has made plain his dissatisfaction at Everton’s campaign by expressing a desire to play Champions League football, indicating he may well see his future away from Goodison Park next season.
Lukaku, the scorer of 25 goals this season, is with Belgium in Brussels as they prepare for the rearranged friendly with Portugal on Tuesday. The former Chelsea striker said “the next step” for him would be to play in Europe’s elite club competition, for which Everton, 12th in the Premier League and 13 points shy of Manchester City in fourth place, have no chance of qualifying.
“That is the next step for me. I’m 23 next summer and I think it would be nice to play in the Champions League from next season,” he told Sky Sports.
Lukaku’s father has urged his son to seek a move away from Everton and the striker said he welcomed being linked with Bayern Munich and Manchester United. “That is my dad’s point of view; I think those are the teams he likes,” he said. “It means people are keeping an eye on you. I have an agent who is dealing with this for me at the moment. I just want to be good, help my team-mates win games and score lots of goals.”
Lukaku has also been linked with a return to Chelsea, the club he left for £28m in 2014 but he was clear he had no unfinished business there. “I don’t think I have anything to prove against them,” he said. “I moved on, they moved on. It was the best deal for both teams because they won the league and I became a better player so we will see what the future brings.”
