Chelsea, the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League winners, have strengthened their squad and acquired the services of their former player, Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan, for a whopping price of 97.5 Million Pounds. The Belgian striker has signed a stunning five-year deal with the Blues. It is reported by Daily Mail that the Belgian striker will be given the ‘cursed’ No9 jersey at Chelsea. Youngster Tammy Abraham was Chelsea’s No9 before being sold to AS Roma recently for 34 Million Pounds. Many players at Chelsea have worn the No 9 jersey, and have failed miserably.
From Fernando Torres and Radamel Falcao to Alvaro Morata and Gonzalo Higuain –over the course of two decades, strikers who have donned the number 9 jersey at Chelsea have never been able to live up to the expectations and were unable to leave their mark. Starting with Chris Sutton, the striker wore the No9 jersey in the 1999/2000 season and was a complete disaster for the Blues. In 28 appearances for Chelsea, the striker only scored one goal. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was next in line to don the number and played for Chelsea from 2000 to 2004 and surprisingly, he scored well. However, since the Dutch forward left the club, nine other players have donned the number, and have performed horribly.
In 2004-2005, Mateja Kexman was given the jersey number and in 41 matches, the striker scored seven goals. Hernan Crespo was considered a world-class player at the time and on signing for Chelsea, the Argentine wore the number in the 2005-2006 season. However, Crespo too with all his abilities could not do much as he scored 25 goals in 73 appearances. Khalid Boulahrouz played 20 matches and did not score a single goal for the Blues in this jersey number. One of the biggest signings for Chelsea, Torres moved from Anfield to Stamford Bridge for a crazy 50 Million Pounds and was handed the No. 9 jersey. The forward did win laurels at Chelsea, including the UCL, Europa League and FA Cup, but did not live up to the expectations, scoring 45 goals in 172 matches played.
After the Spaniard left, Falcao, Morata, and Higuain followed suit as well, despite the big-money moves. The three strikers were disappointing in their performances for Chelsea until the number was given to Tammy Abraham. The youngster is an exception from the above-mentioned players as the Englishman has scored 30 goals in 79 matches played. However, Abraham was not a regular in the starting XI and two years later, he has joined Roma.
Lukaku was brought to Chelsea in 2011, played for one year (2011-2012), sent on loan for a year to West Bromwich Albion, brought back to Chelsea for three months before being sent again on loan to Everton,before the Toffees signed the Belgian permanently. Lukaku was then roped in by Manchester United in a big-money move, where he did not live up to the expectations at Old Trafford. The player signed for Inter Milan in 2019 and is now considered one of the best strikers in the world.
Given the talent and the skills, will Lukaku finally be able to end the Chelsea No9 curse?
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