Romelu Lukaku had the final say in Manchester United’s win at Bournemouth on Wednesday night.
The Belgian striker had started the game as a substitute, but came on in the second half, neatly lifting the ball over Asmir Begovic after being played through by Paul Pogba.
Briefly acknowledging his teammate’s pass, Lukaku celebrated by making a diamond shape with his hands – unintentionally, if you believe some…
https://twitter.com/futbolash/status/986699639817555968
However, as pointed out by others, Lukaku’s choice of celebration was actually completely deliberate, and inspired by Jay-Z, who has been using the symbol for years.
Why, you might ask? Well, because Lukaku signed with the rapper’s Roc Nation Sports recently, becoming the second professional footballer to do so after Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng. The United number nine posed alongside NFL star Leonard Fournette in a photo which announced the link-up, early last month. Despite this, the deal was never officially confirmed at the time.
If my lip reading skills are worth a damn, pretty sure Romelu Lukaku just said 'It's the Roc in this b****' after throwing up the diamond sign in his celebration after scoring a goal chipping it over the goalie.
— Shervon Fakhimi (@ShervonFakhimi) April 18, 2018
Haha Lukaku throwing up the ROC sign as a member of the @RocNation family. That’s what’s up 👊🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿👊🏿💪🏿👋🏿 #MUFC
— Henry_#MUFC (@rocalitos) April 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/A_sleemy/status/986698852903383046
Lukaku doing the roc nation celebration…..as he’s Jay-z first professional footballer to sign to his sports agency 🙌🏾😂😂😂❤️
— Mr_ReezyRealism🗣🙏🏾🏁💙TMC🙏🏾⚽️🇯🇲🇧🇧SIGMA🧠 (@OriginalReezy) April 18, 2018
On Thursday, Lukaku sent a tweet which made clear his celebration had indeed been linked to signing for Roc Nation Sports, adding that he was the newest member of the Roc Nation family.
https://twitter.com/RomeluLukaku9/status/986947043523547136
Roc Nation also tweeted the same image, welcoming Lukaku.
The #RocNationSports family just got bigger. Welcome @RomeluLukaku9! ⚽ pic.twitter.com/uHPePWwB1V
— Roc Nation (@RocNation) April 19, 2018
As reported by TMZ, Jay-Z filed legal documents to obtain exclusive rights to using the hand symbol earlier this year.
With Roc Nation Sports eager to grow his sports management business on this side of the Atlantic, we’d imagine he has little issue with Lukaku using it to mark one of his goals.
United, who tightened their grip on a second-place league finish with the win on the south coast, now turn their attention to the FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham on Saturday.
