The best scorer of the rival of Ukraine was malnourished and did not have television: shocking history Football

Romel Lukaka is a record holder and the main threat to the Belgium national team. And yet – a millionaire and just a successful person whose life has defined the talent for football.

The champion tells about the path of the bombard that you should today Beware of the national team of Ukraine.

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« One of the most important people in my life was my grandfather, my mother’s dad. He lived in the Congo, and somehow I called him. I boasted that I had scored 76 goals in 76 matches for Leers and I was noticed large teams. I was 12.

Usually, my grandfather loved to listen to football, but this time he behaved strange. He asked me, « Rom, it’s all good but you can do me a favor? »

I replied that yes, of course. And he said, « You can take care of my daughter, please? »

I was knocked down from the pantry. About mom?!

I said that we all have well, but he insisted, « No, you promise me. Just care for my daughter. Take care of her. Okay? »

I promised him, and he calmed down.

And within 5 days my grandfather died. Then I realized what he meant. « 

***

Romel was not destined to see his grandfather live – from Belgium to Congo and far away.

Too expensive by the standards of his family.

Adolfin and Roger Lukaka moved from Kinshasa to Antwerp in 1990. In a year they were born Romel, then Jordan. The father was still playing football and making good money in Serena and Beliere.

Local people recall that Roger Lukaka was a head of heading heads – for that, they called the Zaire national team.

Unfortunately, without education and good advisers, he did not keep his earned, but invested in some scam, burns, and residents of Vintema, where the family received social housing, were forced to help the boys – polite, calm and … great.

It is hard to believe, but 9-year-old Romel had already wore shoes of the 42nd size.

« They had not been easy, – The director says Ivo Marnef Vintemian School. – We helped what we could. When Romel began to be late for a school bus, I gave him my bike. « 

Immediately, in Vintema, his best friend Winnie France Recallsas they met:

« I knocked on his door on the first day of study and said, » Let’s play football, « and we did it every day – I, he and his brother Jordan. Rum was already big, but had no muscles, he was just tall and very fast. But he never hurt.

He came home without a knock, my mom was like his second mom. We were the only children in the classroom who did our homework, because otherwise she did not let us go from home. Mom realized that they were difficult for them, tried to help. « 

***

Already in 1999, his father drove Romel to his first club-to the neighboring town of Ruple Bom.

There is still an event that everyone who saw her at least the edge of the eye is glad.

Lukaka in Ruple Bom, Dailymail.co.uk

9-year-old Lucak scored 176 goals in a year U11, shockedshi trainer Erwani Voski and his wife Igrid, What still Recalls one episode:

« Our son Niels played in defense, and Romel was running from the center of the field. Niels could not pick up the ball, so he just clung to the Roma for a T -shirt, but he ran further, not noticing him, until Niels squeezed his fingers. Romel scored a goal, and the judge said to him, » I did not whistle, because he knew! « 

Woski shakes his head – he says, in every competition he was approached by dissatisfied parents who did not believe that Romel was only 9:

« He carried an identification code to all competitions, and I repeated everyone: he was born in Belgium, his age is not discussed. »

Well, then one day of Romel did not appear.

It turned out that the car was breaking, and since the new was not affordable, the sons had to train in a smaller vintem, where they went on foot.

Romel Lucak in 13 years old, Telegraph.co.uk

***

« I remember the exact moment when I realized we were destroyed. I still see my mom near the refrigerator and her facial expression.

I came home to lunch during a break at school. Mom has always had the same thing – bread and milk. That’s all we could afford. But this time she mixed something with him and shaking. Do you understand? And I immediately realized. She mixed water with milk. We no longer had money even for food.

We were the first to cut out cable television. No more football. Then they cut off electricity, it was not for 2-3 weeks. I wanted to take a bath, but there was no hot water.

Even the mother had to borrow bread in the bakery. Jordan knew me there, and we were debt.

But when she mixed water with milk, I realized that it was an end. I did not say a word – lied that I had lunch. But inside something seemed to clicked. I made my promise and knew exactly what I was going to do. « 

***

As often it happens, the way up did not cost without the fate of luck.

12-year-old Lukaka was in Vintemus when Mark van Hoymozen came here and looked at his game.

Mark had no attitude to football, but he had a girlfriend here, and that was the brother of Dirk Giselins, who worked for Lerse. He was an unexpected scout and called.

Romel with parents, dailymail.co.uk

« In training, we filmed his left boat so that he would lie on his right foot. And somehow we had to go to the tournament to France, but we broke up in Romel.

Well, he understood that Romel would go much higher.

In Leers, he scored 76 goals in the first year. Giselins says – the team played as simple as possible:

« All by the ball line to clear the field for the romel and not interfere. »

When, in 2006, the Lierce got into a scandal with contract matches, Dirk moved to a more prestigious Anderlecht, not forgetting to bring with him Romel and his brother-the two best players of the Academy.

Their childhood ended. The brothers were filmed an apartment in Molenbeck – a migrant district with bad glory through Islamic radicals.

« This in Anderlecht we began to develop the technical side of Roma. He had to get used to playing a team that has a lot of a ball. To get used to taking the ball in a penalty area, not to run with it throughout the field. At that time we thought that its greatest virtues were speed and a goal instinct. Says Techidir Anderlecht Academy Jean Kindermans.

Jean Kindermans and Dirk Giselinsks, Dailymail.co.uk

***

« And you know that funny? I missed 10 years of the football league of the champions. We could not afford cable TV. When I came to school, everyone talked about the finale of the Champions League, a goal Zidan, and I had no idea what happened.

I asked my father, « And when can I play football professionally? »

He replied: « In 16 ».

And I said, « Ok, then I will play in 16. »

That is why every game of mine was a finale for me. When I played in the park, it was the finale. When I played in a break at school, it’s the finale. I seriously – always played with all my strength. I did not play myself, I didn’t have Playstation. I tried to kill every opponent on the field.

I wanted to become the best in Belgium’s history because of many things. Through rats running around the house. Due to the Champions League I didn’t see. Because other parents looked at me. « 

***

Having scored 121 goals in 88 matches for Anderlecht youth teams, Lukaka deserved a professional contract directly for his 16th anniversary.

At that moment, Europe already knew about Romel; Transfermarkt He rated it at 10 million euros.

« He signed his first contract in my office without even reading it. I just flipped through the pages to sign. Romel was not interested in how much he earns. He wanted to cope quickly because he was about to start training, »- Laughs Kindermans.

Do not think extra – they did not deceive the guy. On the contrary, in Anderlecht they saw their chance in Romel and put them well.

Already in the fall of 2008 Lukaka scored for the team U19 as long as 25 Heads, winning a couple from a trainer who fulfilled all the conditions – removed a minibus and a burn of a pancake team.

Lukaku and Winnie France, Telegraph.co.uk

Well, adult football for Romel began in May 2009, when it was summoned from a vacation to the finals of the Championship with standard.

« I remember the day of his debut for Anderlecht, – Winnie France says. – I knocked on the door, and his mother said he had a match. He was in the first team and they played the title. It was more excited than it. I knew it was his dream. « 

The romel then took the 36th number because 3+6 = 9.

And he made his debut-at 16 and 11 days he replaced in the 63rd minute. Anderlecht did not save it because Standard with Vitsele, Mbokani and Defur was objectively better, but he still entered the history of Lucak – as the youngest player of the Belgian League.

***

« I remember we got off the bus and every player was in a steep suit. Except me. I went out in a terrible tracksuit and all the cameras sent me in my face. There were three hundred meters in the locker room. When I got it, I already had pieces of 25 SMS. My friends went crazy.

« Brother, what will you play? Are you there?! »

I read everyone, but only answered Winnie, « Brother, I don’t know if I will play, but you just not turn off the TV just in case. » And although we lost the finale that day, I felt like in paradise.

I fulfilled the promise that my mother and grandfather gave.

It was a moment when I realized that in the future we would all be fine.

***

After all, it happened.

In the next two seasons, Lukaka scored 41 goals in 98 matches for Anderlecht, after which he moved to Chelsea for 15 million euros.

In Brussels not regret – on the contrary, Kindermans saysthat the big changes have begun with romel:

« He was the impetus for our youth program » Purple Talents « . We started it in 2008, when Romel’s Father, Roger, said he could take his son to Lily, where the most professional training center was the best. Romel was the first to make us such advertising. « 

Lukaka gave unforgettable emotions of Lukaka – now a guard at a British school in Brussels. Thanks to Romel’s friendship, he met Pogba, Ibaka and other stars.

Niels Voski has already told how he was pulled by Lukak’s field, hundreds of children – he became a teacher.

Meanwhile, Jordan Lukaka in the shadow of his brother Doris to the national team and Lazio, but quickly faded without a club.

Well, you probably know everything about the romel.

Live legend in Belgium, in short. His 86 goals for the national team are twice as much as anyone else. At the age of 31, he pulls to the title of Napoli, where he scores and assets with the same frequency. With his age, he has a new talent.

Lukaka has not communicated with his father for a long time since he betrayed his mother. He has his own family, two children, and he puts 60% of each salary in the bank – he did not forget children’s poverty.

Well, and the rest did not forget – Adolphin, judging by the photo, blooms and smells.

”I really, I would likeTo make my grandfather close and witness it.

I’m not talking about the Premier League, Manchester United, Champions League, World Championships. I don’t mean that. I would just like him to be around to see what life we ​​have now. I would like me to talk to him again on the phone and could tell him:

« You see? I said. Your daughter is okay. No more rats in the apartment. No one is asleep on the floor. No more stress. Now we have all well. «