Chelsea midfielder Jorginho has endorsed the potential transfer of Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan for what would be a club-record fee.
According to BBC Sport, Chelsea are close to re-signing Lukaku from the Italian champions for a figure just south of £100m.
The Belgian, who first moved to Stamford Bridge as an 18-year-old from Anderlecht in 2011, finished second only to Cristiano Ronaldo in the Serie A scoring charts last term as Inter dethroned perennial champions Juventus.
The 28-year-old netted 24 times in the league, an improvement of one from his maiden campaign at the San Siro after he moved to Milan from Manchester United for £74m in 2019, and he now looks set to return to the English top flight.
The European champions struggled to find a consistent scorer last season, with Timo Werner putting in some promising performances but not matching his form with goals, culminating in Jorginho finishing 2020/21 as Chelsea’s most prolific Premier League player (seven goals).
The Italian midfielder has now gone on record to back Lukaku’s potential transfer to west London, believing he “would be worth” the £97.5m fee.
He told TNT Sports: “A player like Lukaku, who has been enjoying great seasons and was a champion in Italy, for sure is a player who would contribute a lot.
“Anyone who comes to contribute would be worth it. Let’s see what happens next.”
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Why Chelsea want Lukaku
It will come as no surprise to see Chelsea linked with a move for Lukaku given their goalscoring form in the Premier League last season.
The Blues netted only 58 goals as they just managed to squeeze into the top four, getting outgunned by the likes of West Ham (62), Leeds (62) and Leicester (68).
In fact, of every club’s top scorer, Chelsea ranked third for the least prolific, with only Pedro Net of Wolves (five) and Bobby Decordova-Reid for Fulham (also five) netting fewer than Jorginho (seven).
Despite winning the Champions League against the most prolific club in the Premier League last season, Thomas Tuchel will need to rectify that unwanted stat above if his side are to seriously challenge Manchester City for the title.
In Lukaku they would be getting a player well-versed with the pace of the division, someone who certainly knows where the back of the net is, and a striker who can lead the line by himself, combining brains and brawn to spearhead any elite frontline.
