Roger Menama Lukaku (born 6 June 1967) is a Congolese former footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Throughout his career, he played for

KV Oostende Koninklijke Voetbalclub Oostende, also called KV Oostende () or KVO, is a Belgian football club from the city of Ostend, West Flanders in Belgium. The team was founded in 1904 as ''VG Oostende'' and has the matricule No. 31. History In 1911, a ...

, KV Mechelen and

Germinal Ekeren Koninklijke Beerschot Antwerpen Club (), simply known as Beerschot AC, was a Belgian football club based in southern Antwerp. Beerschot played in the Belgian Pro League from 1999–2000 (as Germinal Beerschot) until 2012–13, when they were r ...

. He is the father of footballers

Romelu Lukaku Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (; born 13 May 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Inter Milan, on loan from club Chelsea, and the Belgium national team. Lukaku began his senior club career playing for Ander ...

and

Jordan Lukaku Jordan Zacharie Lukaku Menama Mokelenge (born 25 July 1994) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a left back for Turkish second division team Adanaspor. His older brother, Romelu, is also a footballer. Starting his professional c ...

Early life

Roger Lukaku was born in

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

in 1967. He started out playing football for Vita Sports, a local club, before moving to

Africa Sports d'Abidjan Africa Sports d'Abidjan is an Ivorian multi-sports club founded in 1947 and based in Abidjan. The club fields teams in the sports of track and field, handball, basketball and association football, of these the football team is the most prominen ...

Club career

In 1990, at the age of 23, Roger Lukaku began his career in Belgium. His first club was

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

club FC Boom. With this club he achieved promotion to the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

in 1992. The club was relegated in 1993 and Lukaku moved to RFC Seraing. With RFC Seraing he finished 3rd in the

. He stayed with RFC Seraing for two seasons before moving to

. Again his club finished in 3rd place. In 1996, he played for Turkish side Gençlerbirligi SK but he returned to Belgium after only one season to play for KV Mechelen. In 1998, he changed club and played for

side

. After the relegation of the club in 1999 the 32-year-old stopped playing professional football. He continued to play in lower divisions for Aat, KFC Wintam and in 2006 for KGR Katelijne where he finished his playing career.

International career

Lukaku played for the

Zaire national football team The DR Congo national football team, recognised by FIFA as Congo DR (formerly known as Zaire, alternatively known as Congo-Kinshasa), represents the Democratic Republic of the Congo in men's international football and it is controlled by th ...

in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

qualifying rounds. He also participated at the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

1996 African Cup of Nations The 1996 African Cup of Nations was the 20th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by South Africa, who replaced original hosts Kenya. The field expanded for the first time to 16 teams, s ...

finals.

Personal life

After retiring, he and his wife Adolphine fell into poverty. He is the father of professional footballers

and Jordan Tafara Lukaku and uncle of

Boli Bolingoli Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo (born 1 July 1995) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a left midfielder or defender for Belgian club Mechelen. Career Club Brugge Bolingoli made his debut with Club Brugge on 26 July 2013 in the first game ...

References

External links

* 1967 births Living people Footballers from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers Men's association football forwards AS Vita Club players Africa Sports d'Abidjan players K. Rupel Boom F.C. players R.F.C. Seraing (1904) players K.V. Mechelen players K.V. Oostende players Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Linafoot players Ligue 1 (Ivory Coast) players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Süper Lig players Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers 1994 African Cup of Nations players 1996 African Cup of Nations players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Ivory Coast Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Ivory Coast Expatriate footballers in Turkey Democratic Republic of the Congo emigrants to Belgium {{Belgium-footy-forward-stub