SCORENigeria Top 30: Ademola Lookman (1)
Ademola Lookman was Nigeria’s stand out player overseas for this past season.
Listen to Peter Drury’s commentary on Ademola Lookman’s Hattrick 😮💨✍️pic.twitter.com/vcGjJ9mks6
— SimplyGoal (@SimplyGoal) May 23, 2024
He carved a name for himself with the Super Eagles at the 2023 AFCON before he made history with a well-taken hat-trick for Atalanta to win their first European crown, the UEFA Europa League.
An U20 World Cup winner with England in 2017, South London-born Ademola Lookman opted to change international allegiance to the native country of his parents.
He made his Super Eagles debut in March 2022, but it was at the AFCON this year that he really came into his element in a green-white-green shirt.
He played as an inverted winger, which meant he was closer to goal, to score three goals and provide an assist for the Super Eagles to go all the way to the AFCON final.
The former Everton star will then enhance his growing reputation with his heroics in the Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen.
He single-handedly destroyed the German Bundesliga champions by firing a first-ever treble in European cup final.
For Atalanta, this was their first major trophy.
They also finished a decent fourth in Serie A with 69 points from 38 matches and will feature in the UEFA Champions League in the forthcoming season.
Ademola Lookman scored 11 goals and provided eight assists in the Italian top flight.
In addition, he netted five goals and made an assist in the Europa League as well as scored a goal and provided an assist in the Coppa Italia.
He was for the second season running named as Player of the Season by Atalanta.
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini has been most excited by the transformation of the Super Eagles star to a more prolific striker.
“We had seen his qualities through someone at Leicester City. He didn’t score many goals at first, we had him change his position a bit to play him more offensively,” he revealed.
“He wrote history (Europa League final) that will live on for a long time. It was of course those three goals, but the way in which it was done was also astonishing.”
Lookman said both the coach and the club gave him more self-belief.
“The coach and the club gave me confidence. They let me play more offensive football, which means that I am much better now than a few years ago at RB Leipzig,” he credited.
