Adeemola Lookman from Atalanta has published a long personal explanation in which he had defended himself after his manager Gian Piero Gasperini described him “one of the worst prisoners I have ever seen”.
Lookman was on the field for 34 seconds when he reduced the deficit for Atalanta during her Ko-Knockout tie with Club Brugge on Tuesday evening. The Italian outfit lost the first leg in Bruges 2-1, which Lookman missed by injury, and was 5-1 overall when he appeared from the bank.
The returning wing player had the chance to double his individual record with a 61st minute, just to see his low, hard efforts by Liverpool’s former goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet.
Atalanta, which was classified as an external favorite to win the Champions League from many, finally crashed on Tuesday. “Lookman shouldn’t accept this punishment,” said Gasperini after the game.
“He has an openly terrible recording even during training, he converts very few of them. [Mateo] Retegui and [Charles] De Ketelaere was 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. “
After a night to braise his manager’s discouraging comments, Lookman went to social media to provide his answer. “It makes me sad on such a day to write this statement – especially because of what we have achieved together as a team and as a city,” wrote the Match winner of the Europa League final last year on Instagram.
“To be done in the way I not only hurts, but feels deeply disrespectful, not least because of the immense hard work and the enormous commitment that I always used every day to do this club and incredible fans Bergamo from the incredible fans.
“In truth, I dealt with many difficult moments during my time – most I have never talked about, because in my opinion the team always has to be protected and have to come first. That does what happens last night is even hurtful.
“Together with our incredible fans, as a team, we also injure the result of the last night. During the game, the specified penalty truck instructed me to take the penalty and to support the team that I was taking over at the moment .
“Life is about challenges and pain that I will continue to do.”
Lookman was strongly connected to Juventus in the summer and did not appear in Atal fantasy first three games of the season, while this Saga was still growling. The 27-year-old quickly worked into the focus and had a productive campaign with 22 direct goal contributions from 28 games in all competitions in Germany and on the continent. This form has aroused interest from people like Real Madrid and Manchester United.