‘Everyone knows what i want’ – Lukaku hoping for permanent Chelsea exit

The 29-year-old is on loan at Inter but sealing a permanent move could be difficult given that Chelsea paid the Serie A club £97.5m for him in August 2021.

“Everyone knows what I want,” Lukaku told Sky Sports Italy. “Right now I have to do whatever is necessary with the team to make Inter win and then we can talk to Chelsea. The idea is to finish [my career] with Anderlecht. I am nearly 30, and my son started school here and plays in the Inter academy. I am fine, Inter always has the ambition to keep growing.

“I want to stay here and do things right. I hope to do well with Inter in the next six months, work to the maximum and then at the end we talk to Chelsea and hope to find a solution.”

Lukaku said this season is the first time he had missed so many games in his career and his house resembled a hospital as he looked to recover in time for the World Cup.

Belgium had a terrible campaign in Qatar that ended with the striker being consoled by the assistant coach, Thierry Henry, and Lukaku said the former France international was the ideal candidate to take over from Roberto Martínez, who stepped down last month.

“For me Henry is the next coach of Belgium. There are no doubts, I say it openly: he will be the next coach,” Lukaku said. “He has the respect of all the players, he has won everything. He knows how to coach, he knows what we have to do to get there. He wants to win, and I do not think the federation is going to get a coach who wants to change everything and start from scratch.”

It will be interesting to see if Lukaku backing Henry makes a huge difference when the Belgium federation decide on the next national team coach.