Humble Lukaku should be lauded for making the most of his talent, not mocked as a grasping shyster
AFTER a riveting first week of World Cup football, a few questions spring to mind.
Is the real agony of VAR that we welcomed it to silence tedious debates, yet it’s elongated them, meaning even less insight from TV pundits about the actual game?
How many tears will be flowing in Italy as they realise, with no truly outstanding team evident, this wasn’t the World Cup to finally miss out on after 60 years?
And what a fine piece of work that was from Romelu Lukaku? Not the two goals which sealed Belgium’s victory over Panama, but the heartrending piece he wrote for The Players’ Tribune website about his upbringing, which should be read by every football fan.
Especially those who love to label modern players grasping shysters, without bothering to find out why they may be driven to make the most out of the one thing life has given them. Their talent.
Lukaku talks about the destitution he grew up in when his footballing father had finished playing and the family had no money. How he walked into their rat-infested, Antwerp flat, aged six, to find his mum pouring water into the milk to make it last the week.
How he slept on the floor, had big holes in his shoes, no TV or hot water. And, with no electricty for weeks at a time, how he’d sit in the dark with his tearful parents and brother, asking God for a better life.
How his grandad’s dying words from the Congo were “look after my daughter for me”, which set him “on a mission” to free his family from poverty.
His humbling admission made a mockery of the knee-jerk condemnation of all modern footballers as pampered millionaires, who’ve had wealth and success laid on a plate – often by public school-educated pundits who can’t see the irony – yet turn into mercenaries.
Lukaku faced those allegations when he began angling for a move away from Everton saying he’d always wanted to be measured against “the absolute top players” in the Champions League. Knowing his back-story, can anyone begrudge him that opportunity and the money that goes with it?
Since leaving Liverpool as a 20-yearold for Etihad gold, Raheem Sterling (left) has heard the chant “one greedy b ***** d” wherever he’s played.
What few of his detractors may have known, until his latest hammering over a leg tattoo, was he was born into a rough Kingston area plagued by drugs and gangs, which claimed his father’s life. He lived with eight relatives in a small three-bedroomed bungalow until his mother moved him from Jamaica to escape the violence and poverty. Any wonder he wants to make the most money out of his talent before critics, or an injury, finishes it all?
Dele Alli was taking stick from England fans on social media against Tunisia on Monday despite carrying a knock. If, as seems possible, richer clubs than Spurs come calling and he jumps ship, he too will be hailed a greedy b ***** d.
Yet this was a boy so poor he couldn’t afford the £1 subs for training sessions.
It’s very easy to decry a player who wants to leave a club he has no emotional attachment to for more money, as selfish.
But is that the right word? Selfish is someone born into wealth, who still wants more of it, even though they don’t need it.
Selfish is not someone who grew up poor and realised the money they can make from their God-given skill in a short career could ensure their loved ones are comfortable for life.
Before we label the next young player a mercenary, we should be a bit more detached and honest.
Because I defy anyone to read Lukaku’s story and begrudge him living out his dream of playing football simply to drag his family as far away from poverty as possible.