Former Everton striker, Ademola Lookman scored a dramatic hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen to win the Europa League Final for Atalanta in Dublin on Wednesday evening.
The 26-year-old, whom the Toffees signed from Charlton in an initial £7.5m deal in 2017 before selling him to RB Leipzig for more than £22m, shattered Xabi Alonso’s team’s unbeaten record in 2023-24 and denied them a second trophy for the season after they toppled Bayern Munich from the top of the Bundesliga.
Lookman, who turned down England in order to represent Nigeria at international level, stole in ahead of the flat-footed Palacios to side-foot home the opener.
He then doubled his tally with expertly-taken goal, cutting onto his right foot and burying a curling finish beyond the goalkeeper.
Leverkusen have made a habit of mounting late comebacks and scoring even later goals to preserve their remarkable unbeaten run across all competitions this term but Lookman ensured there would be no recovery by smashing in the third in the second half.
Lookman’s talent while he was at Goodison Park was undoubted but he struggled to show it consistently, first under Ronald Koeman and then under Sam Allardyce and Marco Silva.
Silva had cast doubt on the player’s attitude in training in an interview in March 2019 and explained that that was a contributory factor in his lack of gametime.
”We know what his quality is and you know I believe in his quality since the first day I saw him, so it has to be same Lookman everyday with the same desire everyday,” Silva told the Liverpool Echo. “He needs to understand what the coach wants coming from him, and any winger in our model, because, after that, the quality he has. He is a young football player but, being honest with you, I expect Ademola to be on a different level already this season.
“I keep believing, 100%, in his quality as a football player, there are no doubts about that, but what I want to see coming from him is the same desire coming from him, each day, to achieve that, to reach that level he wants and the level I believe he can play at.”
That prompted Lookman to make a somewhat surprising loan move to Leipzig the following summer before signing permanently with the German side. He would be back in England with loan spells at Fulham and Leicester but eventually signed for Atalanta where, it appears, he is finally realising that early potential.