‘Voodoo not part of Romelu Lukaku’s life or beliefs’ says his spokesman

LONDON: Romelu Lukaku is taking legal advice following comments by Iranian billionaire and Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri that the the striker turned down a big offer to stay in Merseyside on the advice of a “voodoo message” that was passed on to him by the player’s mother.
Moshiri claimed in a shareholders’ meeting that the Belgium international performed a U-turn on a contract offer to stay at Goodison Park after receiving the message “on a pilgrimage.” Amid interest from Chelsea, Lukaku eventually joined Manchester United in a deal worth £75 million ($101 million).
“Romelu’s decision had nothing to do with voodoo,” a spokesman for the player told the BBC. “He distances himself from these beliefs and this statement and will now see what judicial steps can be taken in relation to them.”
Lukaku is in Dubai with Manchester United for a warm-weather training camp. His representative said Lukaku wanted to leave Everton to further his career and play Champions League football.
“Romelu is very catholic and voodoo is not part of his life or his beliefs,” added the spokesman. “He simply had no faith in Everton and no confidence in Mr.Moshiri’s project. That is why he did not want to sign on any condition. He wanted to make the next step in his career and wanted the security to be able to leave.”
Everton were under the impression in March that Lukaku was about to sign the biggest deal in the club’s history. In fact, his agent, Mino Raiola, said the deal was “99.9 percent done.”
“We offered him a better deal than Chelsea and his agent came to Finch Farm to sign the contract,” Moshiri told Everton’s AGM. “Robert [Elstone, chief executive] was there, everything was in place, there were a few reporters outside, then in the meeting Rom called his mother. He said he was on a pilgrimage in Africa or somewhere and he had a voodoo and he got the message that he needs to go to Chelsea.”
Moshiri, who has pumped £150 million of his own money into the club to clear debts, said the Toffees offered the striker an “unbelievable” amount of money to stay, understood to be £140,000 a week.
“The issue with Romelu was not financial. As long as I am major shareholder financial issues are irrelevant. I wasted two summers to keep him: first summer with his agent, him and his family we managed to keep him. Last summer we offered him a better deal than Chelsea, whatever they offered we matched but he just didn’t want to stay. If I tell you what we offered him you wouldn’t believe it but they offered him a better deal.
“I got close to Rom, I like the boy, he’s a good boy, and I used all my charm to keep him and I flatly failed. Ultimately we lost money. To buy Rom now would be £120 million. The issue was his brain had gone. He was in LA [with Paul Pogba] and he wouldn’t come back.
“It happens. Alex Ferguson got another year out of [Cristiano] Ronaldo but then he was off. [Luis] Suarez had to bite a few players to get off.”
Moshiri was similarly unsuccessful in trying to keep boyhood Everton fan Ross Barkley, who moved to Chelsea last week after backing out of a £35 million deal on deadline day in August.
“I didn’t spent as much time to keep Ross as I did Rom,” added Moshiri. “When it got to the two years I met his agent and said ‘We need to extend the contract’. He said ‘You need to get Ronald Koeman’ and we got Koeman. He then said [John] Stones was his friend and he should be allowed to leave and he left. We got into the last year [of his contract] and again we didn’t want him to go. Bill [Kenwright, Everton chairman] miraculously got an offer for £35 million for a player who was injured and then he changed his mind. Sam [Allardyce] spoke to him and he didn’t want to stay.”