Ademola Lookman, born in London to Nigerian parents, won the African Footballer of the Year award after scoring a hat-trick in the 2024 Europa League final. He scored Atlético Madrid’s second goal in their 2-0 win over Manchester United on 13 October 2026.
Ademola Olajade Alade Aylola Lookman was born on 20 October 1997 in Wandsworth, south London, to Nigerian parents of Yoruba origin. He attended St Thomas the Apostle College in Nunhead, where he achieved three A* and five A grades in his GCSEs. He joined Charlton Athletic’s academy in 2014 from the Lambeth youth club Waterloo, and his scoring record for the under-18 and under-21 sides took him quickly to the first team.
He made his Charlton debut on 3 November 2015 and scored his first goal on 5 December, in a 3-2 defeat at Brighton, then both Charlton goals in a 2-2 draw with Bolton ten days later. In January 2017 he signed for Everton on a four-and-a-half-year contract for a reported initial £7.5 million, rising to £11 million, and scored on his debut in a 4-0 win over Manchester City.
He then moved around: on loan to RB Leipzig in January 2018, where he scored the winning goal in his first game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, back to Leipzig on a five-year deal in 2019, and on loan to Fulham in 2020 and Leicester City in 2021, where on 28 December 2021 he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Liverpool.
His career changed at Atalanta, which he joined in August 2022 for a reported €15 million. He scored on his Serie A debut in a 2-0 win over Sampdoria, and in January 2023 scored braces in three consecutive matches. On 22 May 2024 he scored his first career hat-trick in the Europa League final in Dublin, as Atalanta beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 to win the trophy for the first time. He was subsequently named African Footballer of the Year, the seventh Nigerian international to win the award.
He represented England from under-19 to under-21 level before making his senior debut for Nigeria in 2022. He was part of the squad that finished runners-up at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and third in 2025. In January 2026 he joined Atlético Madrid.
On Tuesday night at the Metropolitano, Atlético took the lead in the first minute through Pablo Barrios. Manchester United’s Leny Yoro was sent off in the 74th minute after a review, and Lookman scored the second in the 79th minute to seal a 2-0 win. Atlético, who had lost 2-1 at Liverpool on matchday 1, collected their first points of this season’s league phase, and Lookman’s goal made him one of the names of the night. At Fulham he had scored his first league goal against Sheffield United on 18 October 2020, and at Atalanta in January 2023 he scored a brace in an 8-2 win over Salernitana, another in a 5-2 Coppa Italia win over Spezia and a third in a 3-3 draw with Juventus.
Image: Ademola Lookman playing for Charlton Athletic in 2016 (file photo). Photo: Charltonkyle / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
