Ademola Lookman (Wandsworth, England, 1997) is the man of fashion in continental football after his brilliant performance in the Europa League final this Wednesday, in which his hat trick caused Leverkusen’s first defeat throughout the season and gave the first European title in its history to Atalanta, the team he joined in the summer of 2022 and with which he signed a four-year contract. A footballer with a complicated childhood who has now become an idol for eternity in the Italian city of Bergamo.
Born in the London borough of Wandsworth Town, south of London, Lookman (26 years old) took refuge in football from a very young age because hitting the ball made him forget about the difficulties in his daily life. «We lived in a deprived area of London, my mother worked precarious jobs. It was difficult because the refrigerator was always empty and I often had to go to friends’ houses to eat,” the Atalanta footballer explained in an interview. The sacrifice of his mother, whom he adores, and the ball helped him in the most difficult moments.
Life now smiles on the British, U-20 world champion with England but who In 2022 he decided to play for the country of his parents (Nigeria), although as a child he had to overcome a tragedy that marked his path. «When I was 14 one of my teammates died and at that time it also led us to be more united as a team, it was all very sudden, whenever we entered the field or did something together we did it for him, we tried to do everything better. It was a hard moment, not only for me but for the team and the coaches,” he recalled in an interview with ‘FourFourTwo’ when he was playing for Everton under Ronald Koeman.
And fast, explosive midfielder, although without the scorer card despite the fact that in Serie A he has scored nine goals in 29 games this season. At the Aviva Stadium in the Irish capital he went on a rampage with that hat-trick against Leverkusen, a feat that had not been remembered in a final of the second European competition since the German Jupp Heynckes scored three goals for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the decisive match of the 1975 UEFA Cup.
Before the Germans, Lookman, who also has Nigerian nationality and is absolute international for the African country, he celebrated more goals than in his entire career during the season in the Europa League (5 in 11 games) and won the second title of his professional career after the Community Shield that he won in 2022 with Leicester, his previous club before joining Atalanta. A player with very good principles because in his debuts with the Everton in the Premier, in the Bundesliga with the Leipzig and in Serie A with the Atalanta I managed to score.
To find its beginnings, however, you have to go to the academy of the Charlton Athletic, a club in which as a youth he scored a record of goals, which caused his rapid rise in English football, in which he has also played on loan at Fulham. «He spent hours doing technical work, shooting at goal, giving crosses or finishing. “We had to drag him out of the training ground,” confessed Stuart Gray, one of his discoverers, in ‘The Sun’.
Ademola Lookman, who made his professional debut in 2015 in the Second Division in a match with Charlton, starred in the national team’s youth ranks and was part of the team that won the World Cup in 2017. International under-19, under-20 and under-21 with England, he got tired of waiting for a call from the senior team and agreed to play with Nigeria, the country of his ancestors and with which he has scored six goals in 21 international appearances. He made his debut with the Africans in March 2022 and a year later he won the 2023 Africa Cup held in the Ivory Coast.
2024-05-23 11:43:15
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