Romelu Lukaku will take legal advice after verton owner's 'voodoo' claim, insists he left Everton to further his career

Romelu Lukaku will take legal advice after Everton owner Farhad Moshiri claimed 'voodoo' drove him away from Goodison Park.

Lukaku cost Manchester United £75million in the summer after rejecting a new £140,000-a-week contract at Everton.

'We offered him a better deal than Chelsea and his agent came to Finch Farm to sign the contract,' Moshiri told shareholders at the club's AGM on Tuesday night.

'The player was on a pilgrimage in Africa or somewhere and he had a voodoo and he got the message to sign for Chelsea.'

Lukaku has been left angry by those claims and maintains the decision to leave was to further his career.

The 24-year-old's representative told the BBC: 'Romelu's decision had nothing to do with voodoo.

'He distances himself from these beliefs and this statement and will now see what judicial steps can be taken in relation to them. Romelu is very Catholic and voodoo is not part of his life or his beliefs.

'He simply had no faith in Everton and no confidence in Mr Moshiri's project. That is why he did not want to sign on any condition. He wanted to make the next step in his career and wanted the security to be able to leave.'

Moshiri insisted the move was not motivated by money and suggested Everton could not have done any more to keep their top scorer.

'The issue with Romelu was not financial,' he added. 'As long as I am major shareholder financial issues are irrelevant.

'I wasted two summers to keep him: first summer with his agent, him and his family we managed to keep him.

'I got close to Rom, I like the boy, he's a good boy, and I used all my charm to keep him and I flatly failed.

'This is unfortunately the world. Ultimately we lost money. To buy Rom now would be £120m. The issue was his brain had gone. He was in LA and he wouldn't come back. It happens.'