Liverpool: Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri says that the club’s former striker Romelu Lukaku 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.
The 24-year-old’s prolific form garnered interest from top clubs in England after the Belgian international scored 25 goals in 37 league appearances last season.
Lukaku was initially expected to return to his former club Chelsea but the 24-year-old instead sealed a move to Manchester United in July, and Moshiri says Everton offered everything they could in an effort to hold on to their main goal threat.
“With Romelu, I wasted two summers trying to keep him,” Moshiri said. “The first summer, I spent almost three months, and we managed to keep him for another year.
“Last summer, we offered him a better deal than Chelsea and he just didn’t want to stay ... If I tell you what we offered, you won’t believe it. His agent went to Finch Farm to sign the contract.
“Then somehow during the meeting, Romelu called his mother and said she was on a pilgrimage to Africa and had seen some sort of voodoo that said he had to sign for Chelsea.
“What can you do? He’d gone to Los Angeles and wouldn’t come back, his brain had gone.”
— Reuters
