Ademola Lookman angrily hit Gian Piero Gasperini’s “disrespectful” comments about his penalty in Atalantasen Defeat against Club Brugge, where his manager described him as “one of the worst penalty buyers I have ever seen”.
Atalanta was emitted by the Belgian side due to a 5-2 defeat in the play-offs of the KO round from the Champions League, with a 3-1 defeat in Bergamo on Tuesday evening and its fate.
After Lookman had gone 3-0 at halftime, he scored the only goal of his team in the second half after returning from an absence of three games with a knee injury.
But the moment that Atalantas seemed to kill hopes for a comeback was when the 27-year-old had saved his punishment from Simon Mignolet shortly afterwards.
After the game, manager Giasperini said: “Lookman should not accept this punishment, he is one of the worst prisoners I have ever seen.
“He even has an openly terrible recording in training, he converts very few of them. Retegui and de Ketelaere were there, but Lookman decided to take the ball in a moment of enthusiasm after the goal, and that was a gesture that I didn’t appreciate at all. “
Lookman Slams Giasperini’s comments
The Nigerian international, who was recently appointed African footballer of the year, has now publicly spoken out against his manager for his comments after the match.
Lookman wrote on X: “On such a day, it makes me sad to have to write this statement – especially because of what we have achieved together as a team and as a city.
“In the way in which I not only hurts, I also picked out myself not least because of the immense hard work and the enormous commitment, which I always used for every day, to use this club and the incredible fans of Bergamo To help to be deeply disrespectful.
“In truth, I dealt with many difficult moments during my time – most of which I have never talked about, because in my opinion the team must always be protected and have to come first. That makes what happened last night even more hurtful.
“Together with our incredible fans, we also injure the result of the last night as a team. During the game, the designated penalty truck instructed me to take the punishment; And to support the team, I took responsibility at the moment.
“Life revolves around challenges and pain, which I will continue to do.”
– Adeemola Lookman (@alookman_) February 19, 2025
Lookman came from RB Leipzig to Atalanta in 2022, scored 47 goals and provided 23 templates in 106 appearances for the club based in Bergamo.
The former striker of Everton and Fulham achieved a hat trick in the final when Atalanta won the Europa League for its first striking European honor.
Last year he also scored three goals for Nigeria during the course of the Super Eagles for the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
