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‘Rashford deserves massive respect’, says Lukaku

Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford
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Romelu Lukaku has been hugely impressed by former Manchester United teammate Marcus Rashford’s exploits off the pitch.

Lukaku praised Rashford for the ‘beautiful thing’ he did in his free school meals campaign for citizens throughout the United Kingdom.

The Manchester United striker has spent the bulk of 2020 campaigning for the UK government to offer a free school meals scheme over the holiday season to help struggling families, especially those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson then performed a U-turn on his previous stance earlier this month by confirming an extra £170m budget as part of a winter grant scheme.

“What he did is a beautiful thing – it’s something he deserves massive respect from the whole population, throughout England because what he did was challenge the government to help them with free school meals in the holidays because he comes from that environment and when you come from that environment you are marked for life,” Lukaku told ESPN.

“I speak from my own experiences and it’s stuff you don’t want to see other kids to go through that stuff, what he did was a beautiful thing and he deserves massive respect wherever he goes.

“I expected nothing less from him because he has that awareness of trying to do the right thing for everybody – both on the football side and in general life. He deserves massive respect.”

Lukaku’s Belgium team will play host to England in the Nations League on Saturday night. But hopes of reuniting the striker with his old teammate were dashed when an injury forced Rashford to withdraw.

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