Ademola Lookman Olajade Alade Ayoola Lookman, born on 20 October 1997 in the London district of Wandsworth, has emerged as one of the most accomplished footballers of his generation, culminating in his recognition as the African Footballer of the Year for 2024.
His journey to the summit of African football has been anything but straightforward, characterised by resilience in the face of early career setbacks and a steadfast determination to fulfil his potential.
Raised in south London by Nigerian parents, Lookman’s passion for the beautiful game was evident from his earliest years. He would later recall his first memory of football as rolling up socks in the family home and kicking them around, a humble beginning that belied the glittering career ahead of him.
His mother, placing great emphasis on education in the manner typical of many Nigerian households, ensured that her son excelled academically as well as athletically. Lookman attended St Thomas the Apostle College in Nunhead, where he achieved three A*s and five As in his GCSE examinations, a testament to his diligence and the value placed upon scholarship within his family.
Lookman’s professional career began in earnest when he joined the academy of Charlton Athletic in 2014, having been signed from the youth club Waterloo. He made his first-team debut for the Addicks in November 2015 and scored his first senior goal just one month later, in a defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion.
His performances for a struggling Charlton side quickly attracted the attention of Premier League clubs, and in January 2017, Everton secured his signature for a fee that could rise to eleven million pounds. The young forward marked his debut for the Toffees in unforgettable fashion, scoring within minutes of coming on as a late substitute in a resounding victory over Manchester City.
Despite this dream start, Lookman found consistent opportunities difficult to come by at Goodison Park, a period during which he played under six different managers. A productive loan spell with RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga during the second half of the 2017-18 season, where he scored five goals in eleven appearances, suggested his talents were better suited to the continental game.
He joined Leipzig permanently in 2019, but his first full season in Germany proved disappointing, disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and yielding limited playing time. Subsequent loan returns to England with Fulham and Leicester City offered glimpses of his ability without ever fully establishing him as a regular starter in the Premier League. Reflecting on this period of his career, Lookman later admitted that his prospects had felt diminished, stating that four years ago his career felt as though it was in decline.
The turning point arrived in August 2022, when Lookman joined the Italian club Atalanta for a reported fee of fifteen million euros. The move to Bergamo, a city he would describe as relaxed and welcoming, proved transformative. In the free-flowing, attacking system employed by the club, Lookman flourished, becoming the most productive and consistent version of himself. His record of forty-three goals and twenty-three assists in ninety-seven appearances for La Dea represents comfortably the most fruitful spell of his career.
The pinnacle of this renaissance came in May 2024, when Lookman delivered one of the great individual performances in a European final. He scored a magnificent hat-trick at the Dublin Arena to secure a three-nil victory over the previously invincible Bayer Leverkusen, delivering Atalanta their first ever European trophy. In doing so, he became the first player to score a hat-trick in a one-legged men’s European final since 1969.
On the international stage, Lookman’s path to representing Nigeria was complex. Having represented England at under-19, under-20, and under-21 levels, including playing a starring role in England’s victorious 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup campaign, he harboured ambitions of breaking into the senior England squad. However, despite his progress through the youth ranks, the anticipated call-up to the senior team never materialised.
José Peseiro, who would later coach the Nigerian national side, revealed that Lookman frequently expressed his sadness and confusion at being overlooked, particularly after his achievements at the youth World Cup. In February 2022, FIFA approved his request to switch allegiance to Nigeria, the country of his parents’ birth. He made his debut for the Super Eagles the following month.
Lookman quickly established himself as an indispensable figure for his adopted nation. At the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, he was one of the tournament’s outstanding performers, scoring three goals, including both goals in the round of sixteen victory over Cameroon and the winner in the quarter-final against Angola, as Nigeria finished as runners-up.
His exploits for club and country throughout 2024, culminating in the Europa League triumph and his contributions to the Super Eagles, earned him the ultimate individual accolade on the continent. In December 2024, he was named the African Footballer of the Year at the CAF Awards in Marrakesh, becoming the seventh Nigerian man to claim the prize and following in the footsteps of legends such as Nwankwo Kanu and Rashidi Yekini.
Accepting the award, he delivered an inspiring message to the youth of Africa, urging them never to surrender their dreams and to transform their pains into power . He was also the only African player to feature on the 2024 Ballon d’Or shortlist, finishing fourteenth in the race to be crowned the world’s best player.
Ademola Lookman’s story is one of perseverance, self-belief, and eventual triumph. From a promising teenager in south London to a player who experienced the frustrations of stalled progress, he has emerged as the pre-eminent footballer in Africa, his talents now fully realised on the grandest stages of European and international football.
