Romelu Lukaku’s arrival at Roma rekindles memories of Batistuta’s move to the Giallorossi
For a brief period this week, the plane carrying Romelu Lukaku from London to Rome via Brussels was the most followed flight in the world.
Nearly 50,000 people — almost all of them likely devoted Roma fans — picked out the Gulfstream G650 flown by Roma’s American president and pilot Dan Friedkin at one point on the Flight Radar 24 site.
It’s a measure of how much Lukaku’s season-long loan deal means to Roma and its rabid supporters.
Some 5,000 yellow-and-red clad fans were waiting at Rome’s Ciampino airport to welcome Lukaku, Friedkin and Roma general manager Tiago Pinto to the Italian capital on Tuesday.
“The welcome I’ve received from this club and its fans has excited me and given me even more motivation to give my all for my new team,” Lukaku said when the deal was finalized Thursday.
Not since perhaps Gabriel Batistuta was brought in to help Roma win its last Serie A title in 2001 has a center forward’s arrival been so celebrated for the Giallorossi.
“I recently got the opportunity to speak with the owners, and I was impressed by their ambition,” Lukaku said.
For a team that had for many years relied on its strong youth system to develop its biggest stars — see former Roma captains Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi and current skipper Lorenzo Pellegrini — the Friedkin era has been marked by the arrival of a big-named foreigner before each of the last three seasons.
Celebrated coach Jose Mourinho was hired in 2021, former Juventus forward Paulo Dybala was acquired last year and now Lukaku has landed in the Eternal City.
The results have been decent so far with consecutive appearances in European finals — Roma won the inaugural Conference League in 2022 and lost the Europa League final to Sevilla last season — but
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