Romelu Lukaku

Lukaku goes to the top of the Premier League scoring charts!

Everton's star striker, Romelu Lukaku, scored four against Bournemouth and is now the top scorer in the Premier League this season. It was only 30 seconds after kick-off when the Belgian striker got his first of the afternoon. It was the fastest goal in the Premier League this season and it was a beauty! He cut inside from the right and curled a great shot into the top corner. Everton's second goal was scored by James McCarthy but it was Lukaku's powerful run that set up the goal. Lukaku then scored his second after a poor backpass from a Bournemouth defender. The Cherries threatened a second-half comeback when Joshua King scored twice, but Lukaku had other ideas and scored the 300th hat-trick in Premier League history when he scored with a sidefoot volley. Amazingly, Lukaku scored his fourth just moments later and there was still time for two further goals in injury time. It finished 6-3 but everybody knew who the best player on the pitch was - Romelu Lukaku.  

We scored some great goals. Romelu showed that he is one of the best finishers in football. Everton manager, Ronald Koeman.

Who is going to win this season's Golden Boot?

The Premier League Golden Boot is an award given to the top scorer in the Premier League. Romelu Lukaku's four goals against Bournemouth took the Everton striker to the top of the list. Lukaku now has 16 Premier League goals this season. But, it's very close at the top of the goalscoring charts this season and very difficult to predict who will win the Golden Boot in May. At the moment, there are six players who are only separated by two goals. Lukaku leads the way on six goals but then on 15 goals, there is Diego Costa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez. Then, just behind on 14 goals, there is Jermain Defoe and last season's Golden Boot winner - Harry Kane. We think the winner will come from these six players but can you rule out Sergio Aguero? The Manchester City striker has only scored 11 goals so far but if any player is going to go on an amazing scoring run it could be the Argentinian.

Premier League 2016/17 Top Scorer

Player	Club	Goals scored
Romelu Lukaku	Everton	16
Diego Costa	Chelsea	15
Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Manchester Utd	15
Alexis Sanchez	Arsenal	15
Jermain Defoe	Sunderland	14
Harry Kane	Tottenham Hotspur	14

What do we know about Romelu Lukaku?

Romelu Lukaku was born on 13 May 1993 in Antwerp. The city is the biggest in Belgium, but it's not the capital, which is Brussels. Antwerp is home to one of the biggest ports in the world and is very important for the economy of the city. Lukaku has football in the family as his father, Roger Lukaku, was also a footballer and played for Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the 1990s. When Lukaku was 13 years old, he joined Anderlecht's youth team. Anderlecht are the most successful team in Belgium and have won 5 European trophies and the Belgian league 33 times. Lukaku made his full debut for Anderlecht just 11 days after his sixteenth birthday and scored his first goal at the beginning of the following season. He finished the 2009/10 season as the Belgian league's top scorer, and helped Anderlecht win the title for a 30th time and reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League, which was an amazing achievement for a 16-year-old. 

We have to believe that we can catch the teams ahead of us! Romelu Lukaku, talking after the match against Bournemouth.

Where did Lukaku move to next?

Lukaku's amazing performances for Anderlecht, naturally got the attention of some of the biggest clubs in European football. It was Chelsea who decided to sign the 18-year-old on a five-year contract in August 2011. Lukaku made his Premier League debut in the same month, coming on as a substitute for Fernando Torres in a 3-1 win against Norwich City. Lukaku found it difficult to break into the Chelsea team and his 3-year stay at Stamford Bridge involved only 10 Premier League appearances for The Blues. During this time he did, however, have successful loan spells at West Bromwich Albion and Everton. In 2012/13, while on loan at West Brom, Lukaku scored 17 Premier League goals, which was more than any other Chelsea player that season. In 2013/14, he spent the season on loan at Everton and scored 15 Premier League goals. In the summer of 2014, Lukaku made a permanent transfer to Everton for a record fee of £28 million. Since then, Lukaku has scored a further 44 Premier League goals for Everton.

What can Everton and Lukaku achieve this season?

Everton are having a pretty good season. They already have 40 points and are up to 7th place in the Premier League. Everton finished in 11th place last season, which was seen as an underachievement by Everton fans so is this improvement sufficient for the fans and Everton? Can they break into the top six? Ronald Koeman arrived in the summer as Everton's new manager. Koeman had a great career as a player, he won 78 caps for the Netherlands and played over 200 matches for Barcelona and helped them win their first-ever European Cup in 1992. He is making a name for himself as a manager, too. Last season he helped Southampton finish 6th in the Premier League and has won trophies as manager at Ajax, PSV, Benfica and Valencia. Only Sergio Aguero, Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane scored more Premier League goals than Lukaku last season and will be in the hunt for the golden boot this season. 

Is Romelu Lukaku Everton's key player?

There was a lot of football vocabulary in this article. Try the quiz below and test your understanding of football vocabulary. You can find all the answers in the text above.