Romelu Lukaku 'formally offered $54 million deal' to join Saudi side Al-Hilal

Romelu Lukaku has received a formal big money offer from Saudi side Al-Hilal, which could see the Belgian striker follow Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to the Saudi Pro League, according to a report by Goal.

The Chelsea striker, who played in Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final while on loan at Inter Milan, met with Al-Hilal officials in Riyadh on Monday.

The 30-year-old was allegedly formally offered a two-year contract worth a whopping $54 million. 

Lukaku is due to return to Chelsea from Inter this season and early indications suggest that new Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino was ready to give the Belgian a fresh start at Stamford Bridge.

However, the former Manchester United target man is very open to plying his trade for Al-Hilal in the Saudi Pro League in the upcoming season, according to Goal.

The one snag in the potential deal is that Chelsea will be looking for a fairly substantial transfer sum, thought to be around £50 million, for the in-contract player.

Al-Hilal would reportedly be reluctant to pay that much for Lukaku, but are positive a deal can be negotiated with the London club.

Transfer fees are one area of Saudi’s plan to attract the biggest names in European football that has yet to be fully explored.

So far, the Saudi model has been to attract big names who were free agents or out of contract with their previous clubs, meaning they can leave with no exit fee.

This circumvention of transfer fees allows the Saudi clubs to then pay players staggeringly high wages.

The latest gain for Saudi Arabia looks to be French World Cup winner and Lukaku’s teammate at Chelsea, N’Golo Kante.

Following on from their remarkable capturing of 2022 Ballon D’or winner Karim Benzema, Al-Ittihad are close to signing Kante, who is out of contract at Chelsea, for free, allowing them to offer the French midfielder an astonishing $108 million per-year, according to reports.

Reports have also linked Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez, as well as Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, to Saudi clubs.