Europa League is something worth shouting about for Romelu Lukaku

omelu Lukaku was not yet five years old when he caught a glimpse of his future. “The first final I ever saw, when I was little, was the one between Inter and Lazio for the Uefa Cup in 1998,” he told the Italian TV show Tiki Taka in January. “I wanted to play for Inter growing up, because I always admired their great attackers: Ronaldo, [Christian] Vieri and Adriano.”

In his first season at the club he has gone some way to showing himself worthy of that heritage. Lukaku is one goal away from matching the 34 Ronaldo scored in his debut campaign for Inter. Against Sevilla on Friday, he will have the chance to help the Nerazzurri lift the same trophy he watched them raise 22 years ago, for the first time since then.

No player did more than Lukaku to get Inter to the final of the Europa League, scoring in every game. You could make a case that no player has contributed more to the club’s season in general. He is Inter’s most prolific contributor and also their most present, with 4,100 minutes on the pitch across all competitions.

A further 66 in Cologne would put him ahead of every other Serie A player in what has felt like a never-ending campaign. To borrow a phrase from the man himself: “Not bad for a fat boy.”

Lukaku posted those words in an Instagram story, together with a shirtless photo, after being criticised by Gary Neville last August. The former Manchester United defender had professed his delight at seeing the Belgian leave Old Trafford, highlighting his weight gain and asserting that “unprofessionalism is contagious”.

Discussions about Lukaku’s fitness were one thing. He acknowledged that his metabolism had changed and he was finding it harder to keep off the pounds. At Inter, he would have a strict new diet plan prepared for him by the club’s nutritionist, with a heavy focus on fresh fish and greens.

The attacks on his professionalism, though, he could not abide. “I live for this game,” he said. “I am at home all the time. I try to do everything to improve.”

Antonio Conte never doubted Lukaku’s commitment. He had wanted the striker with him at Juventus, the board’s failure to deliver perhaps even a contributing factor in his decision to walk out on the first day of summer training camp in 2014. At Chelsea, too, the manager would be disappointed in his pursuit.

“Only I know what I had to do to get Lukaku [to Inter],” said Conte this week. “Trust me that it was no walk in the park.”

Then again, nor is working for Conte. Lukaku was astonished by the relentlessness of the pre‑season training regime, describing it as tougher than anything he had known in his years in the Premier League. Yet the hard work was accompanied by support.

“Conte is always there at the sidelines, encouraging every player to do the work,” he told Sky Sports. “When I was looking around me no one was moaning, everyone was getting on with it. So for me, it was something special, because sometimes coaches are on the sidelines making jokes because you can’t do it.”

At their best, this Inter team find strength in that unity, a shared sense of purpose that has allowed them to cover more distance per game than any other Serie A team despite a gruelling schedule that has included 18 games since the lockdown – more than any club across Europe’s top five leagues. As the 21-year-old centre-back Alessandro Bastoni put it this week: “The secret here is that more than teammates, we are friends.”

That Lukaku has fit right in is obvious. He scored on his debut and never stopped. A player who had been accused of going missing on big occasions went on to find the net in both Milan derbies.

At Napoli, in January, he carried the ball half the length of the pitch before losing the final defender with a body swerve  reminiscent of the one Ronaldo had deployed to beat the Lazio goalkeeper for Inter’s final goal in that Uefa Cup final win.

Yet his contribution has been so much more than just goals. Lukaku’s outside-of-the-boot assist for Lautaro Martínez at Slavia Prague in the Champions League group stage was an ostentatious example of his willingness to serve teammates, but he has also given up his penalty-taking duties twice this season in an effort to help out players whom he thought needed a goal more.

The second of those occasions, admittedly, backfired badly, Lautaro fluffing the spot-kick against 10-man Bologna, who promptly roused themselves from a goal down to beat Inter and deliver a crushing blow to their title ambitions. Previously, though, Lukaku’s generosity had allowed the 17-year‑old Sebastiano Esposito to score his first senior goal, memorably celebrated with a teary embrace with his mum.

There will be no repeat on Friday. Inter have come too far, in a season that began on 26 August 2019, to risk the opportunity for any personal indulgence.

“I’ve played in lots of finals and the thing I learned is that people only remember you when you win,” said Conte.

So it was for a young Lukaku, who never forgot the Inter team he saw demolish Lazio in May 1998. On Friday, he hopes to fire them to their first major trophy in nine years.