Drogba welcomes Lukaku to Chelsea: Comparing the two strikers goals, assists, salaries & net worth.

Iconic Chelsea striker, Didier Drogba has hailed the return of Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea. The Ivorian striker took to his social media pages to post a welcome message to Lukaku. Lukaku, in his first spell at the club between 2011 & 2014, publicly revealed that Didier Drogba is one of his role models. 

As Lukaku makes his way back to the premier league, we will compare the record of both Lukaku and Drogba in the Premier League. Didier Drogba played 254 matches in EPL from 2004-05 to 2011-12 and a solitary comeback season in 2014-15. Across those 9 seasons, the Ivorian forward scored 104 goals and made 55 assists. He also won 2 Golden Boot awards while winning the EPL 4 times with Chelsea. His most prolific season at Stamford Bridge was the title-winning 2009-10 season when he scored 29 goals in 32 league matches. 

Romelu Lukaku came to the EPL hoping to replicate the success of Drogba at Chelsea and the EPL. In 8 seasons in the EPL between 2011 and 2019, Lukaku made 252 appearances. He featured for Chelsea, West Brom, Everton and Manchester United. Across these spells, Lukaku scored 113 goals and made 35 assists. His most prolific season was in the 2016-17 season when he scored 25 goals in 37 matches for Everton.

While at Chelsea, Drogba was earning $170,000 a week before he got a massive increase to $300,000 when he moved to a Chinese club, Shanghai Shenhua. Drogba earned $5.2m annually when he moved to Galatasaray before earning $3m on an 18-month deal at MLS club, Montreal Impact. The Champions League winner is said to be worth a reported $90m in total worth. 

Romelu Lukaku has earned a lot throughout his career, starting from a £38,000 salary in his first season at Everton before going on to earn £78,000 in his remaining 2 seasons at the Merseyside. When the Belgian moved to Manchester United, he earned a whopping £189,000 salary monthly. At Inter Milan, the prolific goalscorer was given a contract worth £200,000 monthly. He is reported to have a total net worth of £53m.