Everton left cursing Lukaku 'voodoo'

LONDON - Romelu Lukaku rejected a new deal worth $189,000 a week at Everton 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 $101 million instead of Chelsea, despite the Londoners 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 center) to sign the contract," said Moshiri.