Super Eagles winger Ademola Lookman has won Atalanta Player of the Season award.
Lookman was recognised by the fans for his exemplary displays in what was his first season at the club.
The former Leicester City player beat Teun Koopmeiners and Marten de Roon to the award.
Read Also:Man City Table Offer For Atletico Madrid Winger Riquelme
The 25-year-old scored 15 goals and registered eight assists in all competitions for La Dea.
The Nigerian linked up with Gian Piero Gasperini’s side from Bundesliga outfit, RB Leipzig last summer.
Atalanta will compete in the Europa League next season after finishing in seventh position in the 2022/23 campaign.
Got what it Takes?
Predict and Win Millions Now
18 Comments
Though Lookman is still struggling to find his feet in SE and Africa football. I want to say a big congregation to him for this milestone achievement
Congrats !
Lookman is not struggling with SE, he has scored one goal, made one assist and one penalty. The same can’t be said of chukwueze who kept messing up at every opportunity.
Until the team hires a technical sound and result oriented coach, getting the best out of these folks will be tough. Player of the year in Atalanta is no joke
I agree brother. I think lookman is not been utilised well by the coach.
Nigeria is lucky to have Lookman. Though naturally a winger, Lookman has the quality to successfully play as an attacking midfielder. He was undoubtedly the best Atalanta player last season. I have always wondered what the hierarchy at Leicester City smoked that made them not to sign one player that could have kept them up. Their loss is Atalanta’s gain. Congratulations, Lookman. The best is yet to come.
When people say Lukeman is struggling with SE, I then struggle to comprehend how well that person understand the dynamics of club football as against international football.
Simply PUT, you’ve got fewer matches/ fewer practice time to blend and many many more in international football than in club football. Despite all THESE, Lookman right from his game against GHANA, has always been one of OUR best players. He got us a penalty against Ghana after constantly troubling the Ghanaian defence. Only Eguavoen can explain the rationale for substituting him in that game. Against Portugal, he caused Portugal’s defence some real problems.
But for injury that slowed him down in some games, Lookman has always pushed through his limits in SE games. Nigeria is very lucky to have him play for us, as that will become evident proper in big tournaments like AFCON/ WORLD CUP. ETC
@Glory you dey mind dem? The same Nigerians will say Lookman is struggling in SE but will keep thier mouth shut towards Musa’s constant invite. Rather they will be attacking our most inform players and best legs using them as scape goats. hmmmmm! nawa for Nigerians o
Great observation @Glory. This guy is super intelligent and on his day is always a handful for opposing defenders from the wings. I always prefer him to the talented but grossly selfish Chukwueze.
I read on a Zambian sports site CAF has released a shortlist of 50 for African Footballer of the Year Award (AFPOTY), with 4 SE players on the short list – Osimhen, Lookman, Chukwueze, and Iwobi.
@ Kel abeg comot hand for wazza dazzler chuzzy body ooo. That boy na eeeboooyyyy. Chuzzy’s best football, you will always struggle to find on the kind of pitch we have in Nigeria and some African countries.
His light feets travels at a speed not in harmony with the speed of the ball; made slower, faster or out of direction by the bumpy pitch.
Watch that match against Ukraine and come back brotherly. We are just so blessed with good talents presently but as always wrong people in position of authority.
I think Kel has a point about Chuks. He’s been way too selfish in recent games, is too predictable with his “one leg” approach, and needs to work on his finishing. In the last game against SL, he missed several chances. He did score one, but that was disallowed. The most glaring miss was when Osimhen set him up with a pass and he was wide open, with so much time, face to face with the SL goalie. All he had to do was pick his spot. Granted, it’s easier said than done. But for a player of his calibre, that was a chance he should be burying with minimum fuss.
Love for Chuks should make us tell him the truth, not cover up his flaws. If he listens to advice, he will become an even better player. It’s up to him to make the necessary adjustments to his game.
And yes, the bumpy pitches are a big issue. But it’s a problem all the players face! If Osimhen, iwobi, and others can adjust and perform well on the bumpy pitches, can’t he adjust as well? Is it the bumpy pitch that makes him play selfishly, or restricts him to using only one leg, which makes him predictable and easier for top defenders to mark? Look at all our recent matches. The defenders marking him have been quite comfortable, because they know it’s all about his left foot.
Bumpy pitch can make him miss clear chances, I will give him that. But I think he can work on the other aspects of his game where he is deficient. If he does that, we will all celebrate when Real Madrid, Barca or Man City come calling.
@ Pompeii,the pitch has always being his biggest undoing due to his style of play which is more of running at huge speed with the ball quite unlike Saka whose type of football is more on holding up play n putting in dangerous balls. Truth is if Chuzzy try to be Saka it will most likely not work out because they both have different body shape when on the ball.
Hahaha @Glory, Chukwueze nah rare talent. His magical dribbles at Villareal are a joy to behold. The fact that Nigerian players are winning Player of the Year in their various clubs – from Napoli to Leicester to Villarreal to Atalanta and to Everton (I think) says volumes about the underutilized talent in the SE.
But as @pompei correctly pointed out, he needs to add variety to his dribbling pattern and be less of Arjen Robben. His right foot needs to taste lots of action too. Once he gets a bulky defender who understands left-footed strikers well detailed to him, his magic tends to fade for that magic. Otherwise, no one in SE comes close to Chukwueze in terms of dribbles (except Chudera Ejuke and Samuel Kalu then).
@ Ugo the thing tire me on.. Now it seems there is a conclusion, that Bassey is not good enough simply because some miserly ex Dutch international made some irrational/selfish comment about him.
But almost all the time I watched that young man played for Ajax, he was just about the best defender amongst the rest except for some few occasions he allowed the unwarranted critisms to hit him in those wrong places. Also reading through all the criticisms, the emphasis was always on the money Ajax spent to get him. That alone explains everything. Strangely though, we quickly forget same happened to Osimene, the rave of the moment, at wolfburg. My take is, if we cannot bring all circumstances to bear on a player/coach we should then avoid making irrational conclusion on their performance.
Anyway you @ Ugo you are guilty on this as it concern Rohr. You constantly fail to see the REAL HAND behind the dwindled performance of SE in the later stage of Rohrs tenure. That hand still in operation is also why Peseiro is struggling. I can confidently tell you that Peseiro don’t want Musa and few others including all the home based, but he is just so hard pressed by that HAND.
If there was at all any time, I wasn’t so happy with Rohr, I will say that was when, he suddenly introduce 352 formation fir SE, just few weeks before 2018 world cup. This was after 433 had so worked for him and his team with such devastating effect, crushing the likes Algeria , Cameron, Argentina etc. That team, playing that formation was actually going to rip teams apart at the world cup, with the trio of Victor Moses, Mikel, Iwobi in the midfield as well as others. That sudden change I found out was necessitated to satisfy few egg heads politician football administrators, who for Rohr to satisfy them, he had to change the working 433 so as to accommodate their players; reason we had Mikel and etebo both with similar style playing together; pushed Victor Moses to play out wide, and no place for Iwobi. That was where the synergy Rohr had created in that great team started to disappear, causing some disenchanted amongst players,retirement of few that ordinarily should have been the focal point of the present team.
SO BROTHERMAN UGO, ROHR, IS A GOOD COACH, MEANT WELL BUT ONLY JUST GOT BULLIED BY THAT EVIL HAND.
BACK THEN I WAS ALWAYS CRYING HERE ABOUT THE EVIL MEN DESTROYING OUR FOOTBALL BUT MY BRODAMAN IGNACIOUS JUST DIDN’T GET MY RANT. ANYWAY THAT HAND IS VERY MUCH IN OPERATION AGAIN AND SURPRISINGLY NIGERIANS ARE AGAIN, TRYING TO HELP THE HAND AS ALWAYS.
PESEIRO ISN’T A BAD COACH THOUGH HE IS NOT THE BEST. BUT AN NFF THAT WANT TO ACHIEVE THINGS WITH SE CAN HELP PESEIRO ACCOMPLISH THAT FEAT EASILY. NOW ASK YOURSELF, ARE THEY HELPING HIM BY FORCING PLAYERS ON HIM. WE ALL KNOW THAT ISN’T HELPING, THEN WHY MAKING IT LOOK LIKE THE COACH IS THE PROBLEM. I CAN TELL YOU THAT BEING FORCED TO INVITE CERTAIN PLAYERS IS JUST ONE OF THE NUMEROUS OBSTACLES THAT EVIL HAND IS PUTTING BEFORE THESE COACHES. REASON I FIND IT HARD TO CRITICISE COACHES OR PLAYERS. I WILL ALWAYS PUT THE BLAME ON THOSE RUNNING OUR FOOTBALL /SPORT.
Glory, this is why anytime the SE perform below expectations, I personally am always going after the NFF. For me the lion share of all blame is on them. If they hired the best possible coach, support player selection on merit, pay coaches and players, provide good pitches, etc, nobody will blame them if results go south. The blame would be on the coaches and the players.
Until the NFF start doing things right, the blame will always gravitate back on their head. How can they blame or even threaten to sack a coach they are not paying? It’s laughable really!
Nonsense pipo. They won’t provide the help the team needs, but they will be expecting big results. Their foolish decision making cost them $20 million in the WCQ against Ghana. If they do things right and we get good results, nobody will know or care if they are sharing any leftover money. But they are not doing things right, coaches unpaid, players unpaid. Of course, the spotlight will be on them!
@ Pompeii, the saddest thing is, these people can’t even see the unparalleled benefits Nigeria ala SE stand to gain from good performances/ winning trophies.
That alone will open windows of huge huge financial benefits even to the point they themselves we have so much, that thinking of looting will then become very unattractive. Players profile will rise, attracting top teams with bogus sign ons, multiple investment on nigeria football as it would become a much sort after brand, top managers begging to come be a part, sponsors fighting to sponsor etc.
These lots don’t see these things as they are so so lazy in their heads to just be waiting for government budget on sport/football.
Lookman is just bang average. All these praises are unnecessary.
Me surprise oooo, he scores goals at the start then fade off and towards end of season started most matches from the bench. Yes happy for him winning player of the season for the club, but he is not that superb, even with the SE he easily has out, so I wonder what match this people hyping him watch.
I miss samuel kalu, that guy is the best among all of them