On May 22, 2024, Ademola Lookman gets the third goal for Atalanta in the Europa League final football match against Bayer Leverkusen at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Watch it here.
Ademola Lookman had a great time in Dublin. What a great season for the 27-year-old player! He’s on a team that makes the most of his skills. He became only the second player in the history of the European Cup to score a hat-trick, which he did against Leverkusen. The first was Pietro Prati of Milan against Ajax in the 1969 C1 Cup.
The Atalanta players called Lookman a hero after the Europa League final was over. But Lookman had to go through hard times at work before he hit that point of fame.
Lookman had the worst time of his career on November 7, 2020, the same year. The Fulham striker missed a penalty kick against West Ham in extra time when Fulham was ahead 1-0. Fans at home booed and yelled at him.
The goalie, Lukasz Fabianski, easily stopped the beautiful pas de deux. For no reason, Lookingman’s fancy finish made Fulham fans think he was a bad guy.
That mistake was the worst thing Lookman ever did in the Premier League. A very good winger who isn’t brave enough to stand firm in the highest level of the Land of Fog.
People in England thought a lot of Lookman after he won the U20 World Cup in 2017. He was the best player for England U20 that year with three goals. English is where he was born. A lot of people, like Dominic Solanke, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Fikayo Tomori, think that Lookman will one day own the England team.
Still, Lookman can’t handle the Premier League. Before going to Leicester, he played quickly on the left for Everton and Fulham. However, he didn’t make a big impact at any of those teams. There were two bad years in the middle for Lookman at RB Leipzig, but they helped him decide he wanted to play abroad.
The British are no longer interested in the 2017 U20 World Cup star. That summer, Leicester didn’t want to fully buy Lookman, even though he had a good season on loan from Leipzig (42 games, 8 goals). Even RB Leipzig turned their backs on Lookman.
It was at that time that Atalanta made Lookman an offer worth 15 million euros. This was his second chance. Because he was born in Nigeria, the shooter found the best place to get better at football. Lookman also chose to play for Nigeria at that time because he thought he had no chance of getting picked by England.
Atalanta, Lookman became the best player on the Bergamo team all of a sudden. Lookman helped score 46 goals in two years with Atalanta. He scored 30 goals and set up 16 others. No other Atalanta player has ever done this.
This season, Lookman has scored 15 goals in all games, including a hat trick against Leverkusen. Gianluca Scamacca was the only player who scored more goals, with 18. Coach Gian Piero Gasperini said this about Lookman: “Any coach would want to have him as a winger. He is fast, strong, and very skilled.”
Gasperini was the one who helped Lookman meltdown at Atalanta. To help his kids do better, the Atalanta captain changed the way Lookman ate and slept.
I did what Gasperini told me to do and ate simple foods like pasta, fish, veggies, and no sauce. After the game, I went to the cold room to stretch and rest. Gasperini pushed me very hard into a system. Lookman said of his Italian master, “And I need to thank him for that.”