Inter Milan chief executive Giuseppe Marotta opened up on the future of Romelu Lukaku, the striker currently on loan from Chelsea.
Lukaku initially joined Inter Milan back in 2019 following a disappointing spell at Manchester United, with the Belgian netting 64 goals in 95 appearances in two seasons as the Nerrazzurri claimed the Serie A title in 2021.
Following his goalscoring exploits and winning the title at the San Siro, he returned to Chelsea in a then-club record £97.5 million move, but struggled to fit into Thomas Tuchel’s plans and was allowed to return to Milan on loan for this season.
His time back in Italy hasn’t exactly been a roaring success, the 29-year-old having struggled with a series of injuries this season that have restricted him to 15 appearances in all competitions, netting four times and providing one assist.
Inter are currently second in Serie A, albeit 18 points behind runaway league leaders Napoli, and club CEO Giuseppe Marotta said that it is too early to be thinking about Lukaku’s future.
He did however say that the current plan is for the striker to return to Chelsea in the summer, even though Lukaku has expressed his desire to stay at Inter on a number of occasions.
“Talking about it now is premature,“ he told Sky Sports Italia. “At the moment we have the goal of finishing the season, then that will be [the moment] to think about the hypotheses about the team for next year and in this sense, [Inter sporting director Piero] Ausilio is doing a concrete job to identify the players in the right roles.
“Lukaku is a Chelsea player today, at the end of the season he will return there and then a new scenario will open up and we will see what to do.
“He wants to stay, it is an intention that he has manifested several times and surely knowing him we will see if it will be the case to be able to negotiate his return with us”.
