Truly as far back as photos of a young Romelu Lukaku overshadowing his rivals in Belgium surfaced there’s been a great deal of weight on his shoulders, and he has, for the most part, satisfied that.
This season Lukaku made a move from Everton where he had scored 87 goals in the 166 games he had played for, to Manchester United where he has already scored 11 times in 10 matches.
Even though he has dropped off a bit from him form with being unable to score in seven games, he was back to scoring for his national team as Belgium beat Japan 1-0.
With the goal against seemed to have taken him to 31 national goals just six months before his 25th birthday.
Nonetheless, as detailed by the Daily Mail, the striker might not have broken his nation’s record after all. During a friendly against Luxembourg back in 2014 saw Belgium use seven substitutes as opposed to the allowed six by FIFA.
That implies that FIFA considers it an informal match and Lukaku’s triple bag in that game won’t be counted to his record, which means he is still three goals away from being Belgium’s all-time top scorer.
The former Chelsea forward’s future 31st objective for his nation may have broken the joint record of Bernard Voorhoof and Paul Van Himst which has kept going since 1974, the last time Van Himst got for the national group.
At the age of just 24, the Belgium international has amassed 65 international caps and 334 first team appearances at club level.
There’s the real possibility that he might burn himself out too early, but he does have at least another five years to his name and is sure to further that 31 goals by quite a bit.
Even the best defenders would be worried to face him the World Cup coming up next summer.