Romelu Lukaku seemingly prevented Chelsea from signing Jeremy Doku years before his move to Manchester City.
City signed Doku from Anderlecht for £55.5m from Rennes this summer, but the Belgian starlet was on Chelsea's radar while still a 15-year-old youth player at Anderlecht.
Lukaku himself joined the Blues from Anderlecht in 2011 but failed to establish himself in the first team during his first spell at Stamford Bridge.
And the striker's own experience informed the advice he gave to Doku as his future international teammate weighed up a switch to Chelsea. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Anderlecht academy director Jean Kindermans explained:
"I remember taking Romelu into my office about the problem of getting young players to commit to us – Doku in particular.
"Romelu replied, ‘Come on, pass your phone to me; I’m going to call him’."
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Kindermans wasn't too sure about Lukaku's suggestion, though. He continued:
"But I didn’t want to do that because a phone call gets quickly forgotten. So, instead, I got Romelu to convince Jeremy to stay.
"I still have the video on my phone. On it, you can hear Romelu giving advice to the Doku family, saying, ‘Hey, guys, stay with Anderlecht for a while; you’re good’ and so on."
Lukaku's advice appears to have paid off, with Doku making his City debut from the start in their second game following his arrival late last month.
The 21-year-old, who has won 14 caps for Belgium, signed a five-year deal with Pep Guardiola's Premier League champions.
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