Romelu Lukaku: "For the first time in 16 years, I lost my cool"
SATURDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2025, 11:45 - lajoya
INTERVIEWS Romelu Lukaku occasionally watches his eldest son's tournaments — but a recent match at Standard Liège got a bit out of hand. In an episode of the Koolcast podcast in June, he talked about how difficult those moments can sometimes be.
Lukaku explained that he deliberately sat apart that day to watch the match from a different perspective. It was crowded, and he was wearing sunglasses, a cap, and a sweater, even though it was 22 degrees Celsius. Usually, he walks over to his son between matches to ask if he's having a good time — not to give him advice — but this time he had to run to his car to prepare for the semi-final.
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Continue reading On the way, he ran into former Standard Liège players Achille and Beni Badibanga and struck up a conversation. Then suddenly, a parent of a Seraing player called out to him to take a picture. Lukaku politely asked for a moment: he was with old acquaintances and would take the photo later. As he prepared to rest for the next match, he heard a man loudly shout that he should have stayed home if he didn't want to take pictures with everyone.
That's when Lukaku lost his composure. Without thinking twice, he took off his cap and reacted sharply—he says he impulsively wanted to strike, scolding the man with words like, "I hardly ever see my son play football... I'm fed up. I know where to find you." A personal coach for one of the teammates intervened and stopped him. Lukaku emphasized that thankfully no one was filming the incident; otherwise, the image of him "losing control" could have been widely publicized.
He concluded his story by noting that this was the first time in sixteen years he had lost control like that. Normally he remains calm and tries to attend such matches anonymously.
