Nigeria star Ademola Lookman won’t be part of Atalanta’s opening UEFA Champions League clash against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, the club’s head coach Ivan Juric has confirmed.
The striker, who is 27 years old, has been unavailable since the start of the season following a dramatic summer during which time he did not orchestrate an exit to Inter Milan. It was the second year running that Lookman had attempted to escape Bergamo after having previously tried to transfer to PSG having become a hero in the 2024 Europa League final.
“I don’t think so; it is a nasty situation,” Juric replied when asked whether Lookman would report to the Paris team. “He has given a lot to Atalanta, but Atalanta has also given him a lot. We need players who are on the market, willing to play the shirt and improve themselves. Looking down the line, we’ll see what is going to occur.”
Lookman has been a regular since joining Atalanta three years ago, scoring 52 goals from 117 games. He etched his name in club history by scoring a hat-trick in last season’s Europa League final, when Atalanta thrashed Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 to win their first-ever European championship.
Last season, he scored 20 goals in all competitions, five of them in seven Champions League matches. But the decision to skip training during the summer in order to plan an engineered €50 million transfer to Inter Milan plunged him out of favor with his club. With no transfer on the cards and his contract not up for renewal until June 2027, Lookman was recalled to the squad but is yet to feature under new manager Juric, who replaced long-serving manager Gian Piero Gasperini.
Despite Lookman’s absence, Atalanta have started the Serie A season strongly. On Sunday, they cruised to a 4-1 victory over Lecce, with Charles De Ketelaere netting a second-half brace while Giorgio Scalvini and Nicola Zalewski also found the target. The result extended Atalanta’s unbeaten run to three matches and lifted them to sixth place in the table, one point behind Gasperini’s new side, Roma, who slipped to a shock 1-0 home defeat to Torino.
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