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Farhad Moshiri has claimed Romelu Lukaku refused an Everton contract because a voodoo message told him to join Chelsea.
Farhad Moshiri has claimed Romelu Lukaku refused an Everton contract because a voodoo message told him to join Chelsea. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
Farhad Moshiri has claimed Romelu Lukaku refused an Everton contract because a voodoo message told him to join Chelsea. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

Voodoo message told Romelu Lukaku to leave Everton for Chelsea, says Moshiri

This article is more than 6 years old
Lukaku joined Manchester United after turning down Everton contract
Major shareholder says he ‘wasted two summers trying to keep him’

Everton’s major shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, has claimed Romelu Lukaku refused to extend his contract at Goodison Park after a voodoo message told him to join Chelsea.

Lukaku was sold to Manchester United for £75m in the summer having rejected a contract worth £140,000 a week at Everton in March. The Belgium international had wanted to rejoin Chelsea at the time and, according to Moshiri, may have extended his stay at Goodison but for a religious intervention.

Moshiri was addressing Everton’s general meeting, after which the chairman, Bill Kenwright, confirmed the costs of the club’s proposed new stadium at Bramley Moore dock had escalated towards £500m. At the end of the meeting a shareholder asked the club’s board why Lukaku had been sold without a replacement secured.

The British-Iranian billionaire replied: “With Romelu I wasted two summers trying to keep him. The first summer I spent three months with his agent, him, his mother and his family and we managed to keep him for another year.

“Then, last summer, we offered him a better deal than Chelsea. Whatever they offered we matched but he just didn’t want to stay. He wanted to play for Chelsea at that time.

“I can assure you we tried everything to keep Rom. If I tell you what we offered him you wouldn’t believe it. We offered him a better deal than Chelsea and his agent came to Finch Farm to sign the contract. Robert [Elstone, Everton’s chief executive] was there, everything was in place, there were a few reporters outside, then in the meeting Rom called his mother. He said he was on a pilgrimage in Africa or somewhere and he had a voodoo and he got the message that he needs to go to Chelsea.

“I got close to Rom, I like the boy, he’s a good boy, and I used all my charm to keep him and I flatly failed. This is unfortunately the world. Ultimately we lost money. To buy Rom now would be £120m. The issue was his brain had gone. He was in LA and he wouldn’t come back. It happens. Alex Ferguson got another year out of [Cristiano] Ronaldo but then he was off. [Luis] Suárez had to bite a few players to get off.”

Following the general meeting at which Elstone announced that good progress had been made on Everton’s proposed move to the Liverpool waterfront, Kenwright admitted the cost was now £500m. “Half a billion is the estimate,” the Everton chairman said. “Half a billion is what we are dealing with.”

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