Five players who returned to their old club for a higher fee

By Andrew Dickson

Could Romelu Lukaku be set to go back to Chelsea just three years after leaving them for Everton?

With Chelsea now favourites to sign Everton's Romelu Lukaku this summer, the Belgium striker could find himself back at the club just three years after leaving Stamford Bridge.

Although his fee on departure was significant at £28m, the likelihood is he will cost more to bring back to London given he still has two years left on his deal at Goodison Park.

Lukaku would be by no means the first player to go back to a club for notably more money than they allowed him to leave for beforehand.

Here, skysports.com looks back at five
other players who have featured in the Premier League and who retraced their steps at a previous team at extra expense to the side which let them go…

Paul Pogba, Manchester United

Paul Pogba left Manchester United for nothing in 2012 before going back for a world-record fee of £89m just four years later

Pogba is the most obvious example, having gone back to Manchester United last summer from Juventus for a world-record fee of £89m.
Most galling about that sum is the fact he was allowed to depart Old Trafford for Italy on a free transfer four years earlier.
Having flourished during his time in Serie A and established himself in the France team, Pogba was confirmed as football's most expensive player last August.

Cesc Fabregas, Barcelona

Cesc Fabregas went to Arsenal for free from Barcelona before being bough back eight years on for £24.5m

Fabregas is another player who was given away in his youth only to cost tens of millions to bring back a few years later.
He swapped Barcelona for Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2003 and spent eight years in north London before finally being enticed back to the Nou Camp at a cost of £24.5m.
He stayed there for three seasons before the Catalans recouped their outlay and more, selling him to Chelsea for £30m in 2014.

Nemanja Matic, Chelsea

Nemanja Matic was sold by Chelsea to Benfica, lined up against the Blues in the Europa League final then moved back to west London

Matic virtually left Chelsea as one player and came back as another, having been sold as part of the deal which originally brought David Luiz to Stamford Bridge for the first time in January 2011.
His part of the deal then was worth £4.5m but when he came back three years later he cost £21m and had been converted from a playmaker into the defensive midfielder who was so crucial in their title win this year alongside PFA Player of the Year N'Golo Kante.

Nicolas Anelka, PSG

Paris Saint-Germain sold Nicolas Anelka to Arsenal for just £500,000 before buying him for more than £22m from Real Madrid

When Anelka moved from Paris Saint-Germain as a 17-year-old for just £500,000 in 1997, he was hailed as a player which great potential and so it proved.
His 28 goals in two and a half years meant by the time he left Highbury at the age of 20, he cost Real Madrid £23m.
Anelka lasted less than two years at the Bernabeu and it was PSG who came back for him, paying £22m for the forward in July 2000, almost 45 times what they had let him leave three and a half years earlier.

Peter Crouch, Tottenham and Portsmouth

Tottenham and Portsmouth paid combined fees almost four times greater than those they sold Peter Crouch for to buy him back

They say never go back but Peter Crouch did it twice - and on both occasions, he cost the team he was returning to more than they had sold him to someone else for.
Having first left Tottenham for a mere £60,000 in 2000, he cost them £9m to bring into their squad for a second time nine years later.
In between, he had joined Portsmouth in 2001, left a year later for Aston Villa at a price of £5m and then went back to Fratton Park for £11m from Liverpool in 2008.