London: Belgian international Romelu Lukaku gave his reason for rejecting Everton’s offer of a reported £140,000 ($189,000) a week because of a voodoo message, the Premier League club’s major shareholder Farhad Moshiri revealed on Tuesday.

Moshiri told fellow shareholders at the club’s AGM that the 24-year-old striker — who eventually joined Manchester United for £75 million instead of Chelsea despite the Blues thinking they had secured his signature — looked set to sign the new contract until he made a phone call to his mother.

“We offered him a better deal than Chelsea and his agent came to Finch Farm (the club’s training centre) to sign the contract,” said Moshiri.

“Robert (Elstone, chief executive) was there, everything was in place, there were a few reporters outside, then in the meeting Rom called his mother.

“He said he was on a pilgrimage in Africa or somewhere and he had a voodoo and got the message that he needs to go to Chelsea,” added the 62-year-old Iran-born businessman.

Moshiri, who has invested £150million of his own money into the club to clear debts, said he considered Lukaku’s departure was a personal failure for him.

“The issue with Romelu was not financial. As long as I am major shareholder financial issues are irrelevant,” said Moshiri

Agence France-Presse