Manchester United star Romelu Lukaku has revealed that he plans to retire from the Belgium national team after Euro 2020.
Lukaku, 25, holds the all-time record of 40 goals for Belgium and had a starring role as Roberto Martinez’s side reached the semi-finals of the World Cup before beating England in the third place play-off.
The striker should be reaching his peak years when the Euros come around in two years time and he will be hoping that Belgium go one stage further than they managed in Russia this summer.
However, it appears Lukaku will not have the opportunity to better his tally of four goals at a World Cup as he plans to retire from international football at the age of 27.
‘After the Euros, I think I’ll stop,’ the forward told Business Insider when discussing his future with Belgium.
Lukaku is confident that he will be ready to hand over the responsibility to Belgium’s younger players at the next World Cup. ‘I’m 25, I’m like, I’m not even in my prime yet,’ he said.
‘So I still see them as competition right now because they try to take my spot and I don’t want to give it up to them. ‘So like another two years, and then they can have it.’
Lukaku believes Belgium’s ‘golden generation’ set a new standard for future national sides. ‘Every big tournament for us as a country has to be getting into the semi-finals, and then you go from there,’ he added. ‘You will go to win the whole thing, but you don’t go for less than the semi-finals.
He is one of only five players to have scored 50 Premier League goals before his 23rd birthday, and the fifth youngest to have scored 100 goals in the competition. At international level he holds the all-time record of 40 goals scored for the Belgian national team.
Lukaku started his career with local club Rupel Boom, before joining Lierse, where he earned a move to Anderlecht of the Belgian Pro League in 2006. Lukaku made his professional debut while still at school at age 16, and became the 2009–10 top scorer in Belgium as Anderlecht won the Belgian championship.
He also won the Belgian Ebony Shoe in 2011. In the 2011 summer transfer window, Lukaku joined Premier League club Chelsea. He did not appear regularly in his first season there, and spent the following two seasons on loan at West Bromwich Albion and Everton respectively, signing permanently for the latter for a club record £28 million in 2014. Three years later, Lukaku signed for Manchester United for a club record transfer fee of up to £90 million.
Lukaku made his senior international debut for Belgium in 2010. He has since earned over 70 caps and is their all-time record goalscorer with 40 goals and has also represented the country at the 2014 World Cup, Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, the latter of which he finished as the joint second-highest goalscorer after helping Belgium to a third-place finish, winning the Bronze Boot Award
