Lukaku considered leaving the national team: “I cried for days”

A draw with Croatia at the 2022 World Cup led to the elimination of Belgium, then coached by Roberto Martínez, in the group stage

Napoli forward Romelu Lukaku revealed in a conversation with the ‘Friends of Sport’ podcast that he was on the verge of ending his international career after the 2022 World Cup, played in Qatar. In the third round of the group stage, the Belgians drew 0-0 against Croatia, when only a win would have been enough to qualify for the round of 16, in a game that caused a lot of ink to flow due to the several goal opportunities that the forward wasted.

“We drew with Croatia, I came on after half-time and everyone knows how it went: I missed four goals. God decided that it had to be that way, that’s fine, but when I realized what had happened… I had been playing football for 23 years and I had never felt anything like that. I’m not talking about depression, but after the World Cup I was on holiday for a week and cried for days on end. Physically and mentally I was destroyed,” said the player, revealing that it was Thierry Henry, Roberto Martínez’s assistant at the time, who began to dissuade him from his intentions

“I have to take my hat off to Henry, who called me three times a day, every day, to support me and ask how I was, because he knew how I felt. I’m addicted to football and from that day until the end of the World Cup I didn’t watch a single game, I just cried every day. When Domenico Tedesco [current Belgium coach] visited me in Milan, I was about to tell him I wanted to leave the national team, but he said he needed me. I went home, thought it over with my family and decided to stay. In the very first game with Tedesco, against Sweden, I scored a hat-trick,” recalled the Neapolitans’ top scorer.