Hero's welcome as Big Rom arrives in Rome

Romelu Lukaku received a spectacular welcome upon his arrival in Rome on Tuesday as he prepares to finalize his season-long loan move from Chelsea to Roma.

Approximately 5,000 Roma fans gathered at Rome's Ciampino airport to greet Lukaku, displaying banners with messages such as 'Big Rom, new king of Rome' and 'Romelu Lukaku, I'm waiting for you, I'm your Juliet'. A mural of the striker has even been painted in the Rione Monti district.

The completion of Lukaku's move to Roma is set to be made official on Wednesday. Chelsea will receive a loan fee of more than $6.3 million for the 28-year-old striker, who has agreed to lower his wages to a little over $7.57 million for his 10-month stay in Italy.

Chelsea included a buy-out clause of $47 million in Lukaku's new contract. This clause establishes the price should Roma or another club wish to sign him permanently at the end of the season. While Chelsea initially resisted letting the Belgian leave on loan for a second consecutive season, the deadlock was ultimately broken by Roc Nation Sports, the agency that also facilitated Lukaku's return to Inter Milan last year.

Such is the delight among the Roma fanbase, that Lukaku's flight from Bruxelles to Rome's been the most "watched" flight of the day on Flightradar24, the website offering live information on flights. Over 30,000 people wanted to know the exact location of the plane carrying the big goalscorer. For the sake of context, the second-most followed flight had just over 2,000 users looking at it.

Dan Friedkin, Roma's owner, sent his personal plane from Luton to Bruxelles to pick up Romelu and take him to the Italian capital, where he'll spend at least one season.