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Lukaku has been named as the next ‘Drogba’, at the age of 16; he signed a professional contract with his club Anderlecht until 2012, as soon as he turned 16. This season, his first professional season, has proven to be very successful and it is only halfway through. He is regular in the first team and has scored 9 in 15 games. He has interest across the major clubs in Europe, like Real Madrid and Chelsea which shows that he is definitely one to watch for. Recently, he has become the third youngest player to score in a European competition, as he scored twice against Ajax.
Internationally, he scored on his international under 21 debut and currently played 4 games and it will not be long until he will be called up to the first team.
Looking at his youth career and statistics, these back up his attributes and show why he is the player he is. For FC Brussels, he scored 68 goals in 68 games and 121 goals in 88 games for Anderlecht. At the age of 15, he was playing with and against players who were 4 years older than him and scored 26 goals in 17 games.
Attributes
Being a striker, you would expect these players to be able to finish, head, to have great movement and pace. Romelu has all these qualities and more. Having a tall presence, he his very strong and can hold off defenders, like Drogba.
Mental
Having the personality to play at the top-level of the Belgian league at 16 requires great confidence and determination. He has shown that he has the mental capacity to play and score at a top standard and proves he is worthy of being a superstar in the future. He is quite intelligent, as he uses his pace and agility for movement and is excellent to find space off the ball in order to get into positions for his team mates to play balls into him.
Physical
As mentioned before with his tall stature, he uses this for his strength and heading. He has a great leap and can head both for shooting at goal or to head onto another team mate. He is also very quick and agile, which proves vital for a striker, as he uses this movement to get past the defenders with ease.
Finishing
Looking at his stats, it shows he is not shy at scoring a lot. In recent videos of his matches, his goals are placed in the corners and he shows great composure with one-on-ones with the goalkeepers and has either taken them on or slotted it in the corner.
Heading
Many strikers are either good at one and not the other when it comes to heading and finishing and it tends to be rare to have both. And Lukaku is one of the rare ones who scores a lot with both his head and feet, both feet. Due to his tall figure and athletic ability, he is able to leap high and win the ball in the air.
Dribbling/Technique
He is able to use both feet and has an encyclopaedia of tricks up his sleeves, which he uses to get himself out of tight situations or to take on defenders. Also, as he is a very quick player off the ball, he is very quick on the ball when he is dribbling. Combining his dribbling with his shooting, he is a complete striker, as many of his goals have been individual, as he dribbles past defenders and is one-on-one with the goalkeeper and uses his technique to score past them.
Weaknesses
Personally, Lukaku is one of the few players who I can say he does not have any main weaknesses and I feel he is a complete striker and is only 16. His main responsibility is to be dedicated and to be able to maintain his ability and hope that he career flourishes without any major injuries. He his a complete striker because he scores many goals with both feet and his head. He is tall, strong, quick and skillful; he just has all the attributes of a striker.
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