Romelu Lukaku has completed his loan move back to Inter Milan from Chelsea, the Premier League club have confirmed.
The Belgium striker will spend the 2022-23 campaign with Inter in Italy, the club he left to re-join Chelsea in a £97.5million deal last year.
The 29-year-old endured an underwhelming 2021-22 season at Stamford Bridge, although he still finished at the Blues’ top scorer with 15 goals.
A statement from Chelsea read: “Romelu Lukaku will spend the 2022-23 campaign with Inter Milan after completing a season-long loan move from Chelsea.”
The short, matter-of-fact statement went on to mention the highlights of Lukaku’s past season without offering any comment.
Official, confirmed. Romelu Lukaku joins Inter on a one-year loan deal until June 2023, no buy option or obligation clause. Inter will cover full salary. 🚨🔵 #Inter
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 29, 2022
Here Lukaku with Inter president Steven Zhang 🎥⤵️ @Inter pic.twitter.com/enF2yfOC89
News of the transfer was also confirmed in a short video posted by Inter in which the player said he was “very happy”.
The Serie A outfit followed with another tweet which read: “Welcome back Rom”.
Lukaku first played for Chelsea as a teenager but was let go by the club in 2014, joining Everton after successful loan spells with both the Toffees and West Brom.
His performances for the Merseyside club earned him a £75million move to Manchester United in 2017 but he spent only two years at Old Trafford before a £74million switch to Inter.
Romelu Lukaku will spend the 2022/23 campaign with Inter Milan after completing a season-long loan. ⤵️
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) June 29, 2022
He thrived in Italy, scoring 64 goals in 95 appearances and helping Inter win their first Serie A title in 11 years in 2021.
That prompted Chelsea to bring him back to London for a club-record fee but, despite a promising start with a debut goal, he struggled for consistency and suffered an injury setback.
Relations with the club then hit a low last December with the airing of an interview in which he bemoaned the way he was being used by manager Thomas Tuchel and spoke about his ongoing love for Inter.
A parting of the ways has seemed inevitable for some time and Chelsea last week agreed to the loan move back to Inter.
