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Romelu Lukaku: Everton striker rejects new contract at Goodison Park

By Phil McNultyChief football writer

Last updated on .From the section Footballcomments497

Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku has been directly involved in 51% of Everton's Premier League goals this season

Everton striker Romelu Lukaku has turned down the most lucrative contract offer in the club's history.

The Premier League club had been confident the Belgium international would sign a new five-year deal thought to be worth around £140,000 a week.

The 23-year-old's agent, Mino Raiola, had said his client was "99.9%" certain to extend his stay at Goodison Park.

However, Lukaku has told the Toffees he currently has no desire to extend a contract that has two years to run.

Lukaku has made no secret of his desire to play in the Champions League and has been linked with a return to former club Chelsea, from whom he joined Everton for £28m in 2014.

Everton's contract offer remains on the table and still hope further negotiations could end in an agreement.

For now, however, Lukaku is not willing to agree terms and the Toffees would demand a fee in excess of £60m for a player who has scored 19 goals this season.

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497 comments

  • Comment posted by City til I die, at 18:30 14 Mar 2017

    I never understand fans saying that players are greedy & disloyal etc. Clubs are quick enough to dump players when they are deemed surplus to requirements, like Lampard & Gerrard were. As for loyalty, are you loyal to your employer? If a more successful company head-hunted you, offering a better salary & a chance of winning awards, would you turn it down? Oh, the hypochrisy of it all!!

  • Comment posted by Lloydy, at 18:00 14 Mar 2017

    The agents have ruined the game.

  • Comment posted by Strangely Brown, at 18:07 14 Mar 2017

    The Bosman ruling was introduced as a way for older players who were out of favour at the clubs to move on without a transfer fee after their contract expired, and were no longer being paid by their team

    It was never intended as a way for younger better players to hold clubs to ransom for extortionate wages or to orchestrate a transfer under their terms.

  • Comment posted by HandsomeEvertonian, at 18:10 14 Mar 2017

    Good player but let's get £70 million, reinvest and move on.

    Sorting out the stadium at Bramley Dock is far more important.

  • Comment posted by U15057958, at 19:08 14 Mar 2017

    I have supported Everton for 50 plus years. Players come and go. The team matters, not individual players. However, players have far too much power and far too much money. When Sky fails and the premiership comes tumbling down, Everton, along with many other clubs, will still be there. The 1st division will be reborn. Who knows, we may even return to real football one day.

  • Comment posted by matt miller, at 18:40 14 Mar 2017

    I've loved and lived football for the last 36 years but this season my love has dwindled. The money on offer is ridiculous, players play for the money and not the club. If Chelsea offer lukaku 10k a week but euro football will he go, no chance. It's about time there was a salary cap. P.s I am a Rotherham fan so that may be part of the problem why I'm so fed up with it all.

  • Comment posted by iain budgen, at 18:00 14 Mar 2017

    2. Vanimpe... Lukaku wants to play European football. Thats hardly greed.

  • Comment posted by jamessnow, at 18:26 14 Mar 2017

    TV Money .... ruining our national game since 1992

  • Comment posted by wedontcarrybottles, at 18:29 14 Mar 2017

    I am not an Everton fan, far removed from that that club as you can get.

    However, this nonsense that good players have to go to clubs that are 'guaranteed' champions league is so wrong, and reduces real competition in the premiership.

    Clubs must aspire to getting higher in the league and fans expect it. Lukaku should see himself as part of thr solution to giving Everton that chance.

  • Comment posted by david, at 19:47 14 Mar 2017

    Declining £140K a week!!! Ha Ha........ We live on a different planet don't we....

  • Comment posted by JulieH, at 20:28 14 Mar 2017

    Why do some players kiss their team badges when they score goals? They don't love their teams, or their fans, or even the game. They just love the money.

  • Comment posted by john t, at 20:03 14 Mar 2017

    Chelsea and Man city bigger than Everton my arse, not so many years ago both clubs were rotting in the 1st div until hey presto billionaires turn up, the ORIGINAL BIG 5 EVERTON, TOTTENHAM,ARESENAL,MAN UNITED, LIVERPOOL, leave out the negative comments about Everton and Lukaku if he wants to go let him sell him, probably go to a smaller club with little history motivated by ££££ signs.

  • Comment posted by Jay74, at 19:24 14 Mar 2017

    @189

    That would be all.

    Everton should be able to hold out for roughly 200m after watching what 89m buys you these days.

  • Comment posted by alex, at 18:03 14 Mar 2017

    Hmm sometimes you only look good coz of the situation you in. Better to be in a team that builds itself round you.

  • Comment posted by U15642707, at 19:48 14 Mar 2017

    216. faz763

    "Liverpool should swap Sturridge for Lukaku"

    Do you mean swap Sturridge, £60m and a team of doctors and physios to help Sturridge stay fit for more than 1 month for Lukaku?

  • Comment posted by spamfiend, at 18:10 14 Mar 2017

    #29 Baha - Everton deserve better from Lukaku as we where the ones who took him on loan when he was being overlooked at Chelsea and Everton where the ones who gave him a good contract and the Everton fans who supported him deserve a bit more from him. Everyone wants Champions League football but you have to earn that and despite being a very good player he may struggle if he moves

  • Comment posted by Jim, at 19:47 14 Mar 2017

    Money and the current need to have success now, which leads to buying in from abroad rather than developing talent, has ruined football.

    The players have far too much power and are far too removed from the fanbase of most clubs.

    At times i wonder why we support our local clubs. The only thing local about them now appears to be the location of the stadium. Gaelic football has the right idea

  • Comment posted by Dips, at 19:21 14 Mar 2017

    Ronald Korean is only 53 and on his 10th managerial job already. The "no loyalty in football" starts and ends with Lukaku's manager who would be off to Barcelona in a heartbeat. Why should any of his players show a greater degree of loyalty than their boss?

  • Comment posted by U16649419, at 18:32 14 Mar 2017

    Sad that so called BIG CLUB is a reason, and its why football sickens me to the death. The media is wrecking our beautiful game, hyping up money monsters, and overpraising SUGAR DADDIES. Utterly sickening that clubs who try so hard make progress get the regular brain washed garbage, of being too small. I hope Everton can kick in their teeth these pundit judges, who tell us who can play for who.

  • Comment posted by Liverpool 1985, at 23:14 14 Mar 2017

    He was always going to leave. This is hardly a surprise. If Everton get £60m for him, they've done very well.

    I get the feeling that if he leaves,Everton will get the better of the deal. He's already been at Chelsea and couldn't hack it,so what makes him think he could do better than Everton now?

    If it wasn't for Everton giving him a chance, he'd be nothing. Talk about ungrateful

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