Recently, former Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku appeared on the Friend of Sports podcast to share his time playing for Chelsea and what the outside world thinks of him.
Lukaku mentioned that in England he was often asked to play in the box and was seen as the new Drogba because of his size. Drogba had achieved great things with Chelsea, so Lukaku was expected to have his back to goal like Drogba and hold onto the ball no matter where it was passed from. However, Lukaku has made it clear that he is not that style of player.
Lukaku recalls that in England he received a lot of negative comments, such as "he's lazy, he doesn't work hard, he's not a leader, he's selfish, he can't hold the ball" and so on. These comments put him under pressure, but he always believed in his own style of soccer and ability.
Fortunately, Lukaku found a suitable stage for himself in Inter. After he played at Inter for two years, people's evaluation changed drastically. People began to praise his backheel ability as the strongest in the world and considered him a top five player in the world.
This experience of Lukaku shows that under different environments and tactical systems, players will perform and be evaluated differently. Through his story, he hopes to encourage more players to stick to their own style, find the stage that suits them, and not be swayed by external evaluations.
