Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Manchester City, Chelsea, Romelu Lukaku, Football
Marcus Chan
Romelu Lukaku reportedly stepped in to prevent Jeremy Doku from joining Chelsea.
This summer, Doku made a big money move to join Premier League and Champions League winners Manchester City.
The deal to bring Doku to the Etihad Stadium was reportedly worth £55 million.
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However, things could have gone very differently for the Belgian winger.
When he was still 15 years old, Doku was attracting interest from many Premier League clubs after impressing whilst playing for Anderlecht.
Chelsea were interested in signing the young winger, but according to Anderlecht’s academy director, Jean Kindermans, Lukaku played a vital role in preventing the transfer.
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Kindermans said to the Sunday Mirror, via the Evening Standard: “I remember taking Romelu into my office about the problem of getting young players to commit to us – Doku in particular.
“Romelu replied, ‘Come on, pass your phone to me, I’m going to call him’. But I didn’t want to do that because a phone call gets quickly forgotten. So, instead, I got Romelu to convince Jeremy to stay.”
He added: “I still have the video on my phone. On it, you can hear Romelu giving advice to the Doku family, saying ‘Hey, guys, stay with Anderlecht for a while, you’re good’ and so on.”
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Doku went on to make his first team debut for Anderlecht in 2018 at the age of 16. Two years later, he joined French side Rennes.
After a string of brilliant performances for the Ligue 1 club, City decided to snap up the 21-year-old.
Upon signing for the club, Doku said: “I'm very excited, like the Premier League is a league that I always watch with my dad and my brother and on Sunday evening, Match of the Day.
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“I can tell you now that I'm ready, but I will have to see. But I'm really confident. I have a lot of confidence in myself. So I think, with the help of the coaches and staff and the team, we'll be going good.”