Call me Lukaku: Everton striker emerges as Premier League's best in 2015

He is fiercely proud of his name. Romelu, after all, is a combination of his father's. Ro-ger Me-nama Lu-kaku. He doesn't want to be the next Didier Drogba - no disrespect to his idol, former teammate, mentor, and friend. He's just heard those comparisons ever since he was 16 years old. Of course he's tired of them.

Romelu Lukaku wants to be his own player. He wants his own share of history. And he is finally starting to set himself apart from the competition.

The goals are now coming with regularity at Everton. His equaliser against Crystal Palace on Monday gave him 50 goals in 100 games - a feat last achieved by a Toffee 46 years ago and only by four other Premier League players before the age of 23. He hasn't gone more than four matches without hitting the back of the net this year. He has also kept himself healthy, playing 42 times since Jan. 1.

(Courtesy: Everton)

"I think we've seen a very consistent footballer for the last 12 months," said manager Roberto Martinez. "He's been a striker with a lot of responsibility in the team, a focal point with a terrific goal-scoring ratio, but the assists and everything he is doing in the final third is as good as it gets in the league.

"Only maybe Sergio Aguero had a similar impact in the last three years."

No other Premier League player has more goals than Lukaku's 27. Not Aguero, not Harry Kane, not Olivier Giroud or anyone else. All the hoopla is about Leicester City record-breaker Jamie Vardy, the inspiration for a possible movie, but Lukaku has had arguably the best 2015 of all.

Many knew he would get to this point, just maybe not this way. He could hardly keep the the press away when he was a teenager at Anderlecht. Lukaku was the worst kept secret in Europe. He made his professional debut at 16, and even finished as the top scorer in the Jupiler League that same 2009-10 season. He did all of this while he was still in school.

His dad helped. Roger, who played professionally in Belgium and Turkey, counselled his son and advised him to stay at Anderlecht for one more year, turning down the early advances of Real Madrid and Chelsea in October 2010. Good people surrounded Lukaku.

He wasn't shy with the press, and he wasn't afraid, either. He was prepared for immediate success, mentally and physically. Built like a boxer, Lukaku hardly looked his age. He could fend off veteran defenders 10 years his senior, and muscle them out of the way.

His resemblance to Drogba came to the minds of scouts and reporters quickly; the way he held up play, his effectiveness as a standalone striker, armed with the punishing qualities of an old-fashioned centre-forward.

After much speculation, Lukaku moved to Chelsea in 2011. He supported the Blues as a child, and toured Stamford Bridge on a previous school trip.

"I'm very pleased to be here," he said at the time. "Unfortunately, I didn't meet Drogba. If ever one day I will cry, it will be when I sign for Chelsea."

There were no tears at his unveiling, only smiles and a dream realised. But it was only after a short time that life at Chelsea became stale. He didn't get the minutes that he earned so easily in Belgium, and he never did play a competitive match together with Drogba.

Once Mourinho arrived, so too did the time to move on.

After productive loan spells with West Brom and Everton, Lukaku chose to restart his young career in 2014. He just couldn't convince Mourinho. The Portuguese didn't see enough from Lukaku in the defensive phase of the pitch, and allowed the permanent £28-million transfer to Everton.

Lukaku could always score himself out of trouble - suddenly marvellous on an otherwise dreadful night - but Mourinho doubted the player's technical abilities. A missed penalty in the Super Cup against Bayern Munich in August 2013 was Lukaku's last kick as a Chelsea player.

Drogba, as he's always done, gave his protege his full support.

"Only those who don't take a penalty will never miss and you were strong enough to do it," the Ivorian wrote on his Instagram page.

That relationship has only grown in the time since, despite the machinations of the media looking for an easy link. The two often text and chat on the phone. Drogba gives Lukaku tips "all the time," and encourages his left-footed friend to do more with his right.

"When I arrived at Chelsea they put me next to him in the dressing room so that is when it started and I saw what a top professional he was," Lukaku said recently.

Those first few months at Goodison Park didn't do much to prove Mourinho wrong, or allay fears that hype had yet claimed another casualty. He scored just two in 10 matches to start the 2014-15 season.

Martinez never gave up. He said from the beginning the fee for Lukaku was money well spent. He believed in everything that made the Belgian striker stand out as a starlet at Anderlecht. Lukaku brought strength to Everton's lineup, a match-to-match goal threat to a midtable club, and a presence upfront.

As a difficult year ended and 2015 began, a much more complete player came into being. The goals came, and even the assists. He has four this campaign - no other Premier League striker has more. His clever runs into space open the defence, and he will pass to teammates in better positions.

He knows what's happening around him. Lukaku isn't just a brutal finisher anymore.

"He is a striker who can do it all," said Martinez.

Lukaku, now 22, is getting closer to the finished article. That he isn't already is proof Everton has a special player indeed.