Inter CEO Giuseppe Marotta has confirmed that Chelsea loanee Romelu Lukaku wants to remain with the Serie A side beyond the summer.

Lukaku joined Inter on loan from Chelsea after a bitterly disappointing 12 months at Stamford Bridge, but his loan contract is just for one season and there is no option for the Nerazzurri to buy the striker as part of the agreement.

As a result, Lukaku is set to return to Chelsea at the end of the current campaign, but Marotta vowed to explore bringing the Belgian back to San Siro.

„Talking about [Lukaku staying] is premature, at the moment we have the goal of finishing the season in the best possible way, then we will have to think about the hypotheses for next year,“ Marotta told Sky Sport Italia.

„Lukaku is a Chelsea player today. At the end of the season, he will return there and then a new scenario will open up and we’ll see what to do.

„He wants to stay, it is an intention that he has expressed several times, and we will see if we will be able to negotiate his return with us.“

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Chelsea paid a then-record £97.5m to sign Lukaku in August 2021, but the Belgian struggled under Thomas Tuchel and angered fans with an interview in which he criticised the club’s tactics and voiced a desire to play for Inter again.

A loan return to the Nerazzurri was agreed last summer for a fee of around £8m, but Lukaku has struggled horribly with injuries ever since and has started just eight of his 15 appearances, scoring four goals for good measure.

Chelsea are keen to cash in on Lukaku to help finance a move for Napoli striker Victor Osimhen but stand to make a significant loss on the Belgian if a permanent sale can be agreed.

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