Ademola Lookman arriving at Atlético Madrid represents a huge opportunity for Los Colchoneros and their under-fire coach Diego Simeone, not only to eliminate Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semifinal, but to win their first trophy in five long years.
The London-born Nigeria international possesses two-footed dribbling skills, notable quickness, a nose for goal and good vision. He is the kind of player who is the antithesis of Simeone’s often-moribund, risk-averse, increasingly predictable playing style.
He hasn’t reached Atleti, from Atalanta, in prime condition, but the timing is exceptional: if he can reproduce some of the things he inflicted on Real Betis in the Copa quarterfinal last week, but doing it over two legs against Barcelona in the semifinal, then the holders might find their specific Achilles heel being successfully and painfully targeted.
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This likable, enthusiastic globetrotting forward has the ebullient athleticism to time runs beyond Hansi Flick’s high press (perhaps even more at Camp Nou next week than at home on Thursday), and he’s got the bag of tricks, flicks and assists that can send teammates through on Joan García‘s goal — racing into that tantalizing 35 to 40 meters of empty space behind Barça’s back line and Garcia’s advanced sweeper-keeper position.
Lookman isn’t a wholly unknown package to Barcelona, but he’s very, very far from a player they are used to judging and defending instinctively because of previous duels. He played with Dani Olmo at RB Leipzig and, together, they took a 0-0 draw from Flick’s Bayern Munich back in 2020.
Personal references, automatic understandings of dangerous, creative, quick players are ultra-valuable, but in this case, Lookman is a jack-in-the-box whose decisions, skills, mentality, pace and daring can surprise Barcelona. It’s particularly interesting that the 28-year-old, who’s a world champion with England at the U20 level and who won the 2023-24 UEFA Europa League with a devastating hat trick for Atalanta in the final against Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen, plays down the left side.
Of all Flick’s stalwarts, the one who’s had the most difficulties, who looks the most overplayed and who’s consistently mixed wonderful attacking skills with questionably defensive errors is right back Jules Koundé. Throw into the mix that Barcelona’s right touchline, directly opposing some of the zone where Lookman patrols, is completed by Lamine Yamal and can you see the tantalizing picture that emerges?
Atleti’s thrilling new signing on the burst, Koke, Álex Baena and Lookman’s former Atalanta teammate Matteo Ruggeri feeding him (Lookman, Ruggeri and Atlético reserve/Copa keeper Juan Musso all played in that Europa League final win together): maybe just a hint that these combinations can nudge Atleti past the horrors of last season’s 4-4 (away from home) but 0-1 (home) semifinal aggregate loss to Barça?
But if Koundé is struggling, then does Yamal have to track back even more than usual to contain Lookman? Is there any chance that, just by offering the effervescent, bullish football he showed against Betis in Seville last week, Lookman can offer a partial antidote to the record-breaking 18-year-old?
Of course, it might work quite the other way. Yamal and Koundé are used to taking huge positional risks; they are used to facing up to any kind of opponent and effectively saying, You defend us, attack us, kick us, press us, double mark us … we’ll find a way to wriggle out of it, to create threat and to score. They are a genuine dynamite duo.
Yamal, for the record and for Lookman’s attention, just scored five goals in five consecutive matches for Barcelona — two years earlier than Lionel Messi managed at the same age. He also just scored 24 goals at a more precocious age than any player in the 21st century, eclipsing a record set by Kylian Mbappé by doing it about a year and a half earlier than Real Madrid‘s World Cup-winning goal machine.
This being Atleti, however, there are of course ifs, buts and enough going on to furrow your brow.
Lookman has been been “in dispute” with Atalanta pretty much all season, since his wish to join Inter Milan was thwarted by the Bergamo club asking just about double the transfer fee that Atlético paid to secure him in January (€60 million then, €35 million now). Atalanta moved on from him because they had zero confidence that the Londoner — who’s now in his fourth major continental league: Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, LaLiga — would see out his contract, refuse to renew and then leave for free next summer. That’s how badly the relationship had soured.
As such, his match time this season have been drastically limited by coach Raffaele Palladino. If you compare Lookman’s minutes this season prior to landing in Madrid (797), he’d be about 18th in the list of competitive minutes in Atleti’s squad.
The guy’s a bit rusty, perhaps a scintilla off his sharpest and his best stamina — that’s an unfortunate trait to carry into Copa semifinals against the Spanish champions. That wasn’t noticeable when he scored, assisted and played a key role in Atlético’s 5-0 Copa humiliation of Betis last week, but it’s something he and Atleti’s fitness staff will be working on this week.
This being Los Colchoneros, of course, nothing is smooth, easy or straightforward.
Lookman was smart, useful and looked threatening in that remarkable 1-0 home defeat to Betis in the league on Sunday — on the pitch for 70 minutes. When he was subbed off, it didn’t look a ridiculous idea, but it didn’t go down well with the guy who brought him to the club and OK’s the €35 million outlay: Atleti director of football Mateu Alemany.
The TV match director swiveled a shot straight to the Metropolitano stand to catch Alemany (pretty new to the club but the face of the future and someone who’s going to put a different focus on Simeone going forward) with a facial expression that registered somewhere on the doubt-concern-disgust spectrum. It was an expression that said, Are you sure? Well … consequences on your head, Diego. At least that’s my interpretation.
Another of my interpretations is that we got a glimpse of what the coach thinks when his ex-teammate from the Atlético side that won the Copa-Liga double in 1996, legendary striker Kiko, spoke about Lookman on Spanish radio last week. The now-53-year-old who made 26 appearances for Spain between 1992 and 1998 suggested that coaxing the best out of Lookman on a consistent basis will require all of Simeone’s magic man-management skills.
Maybe I’m wrong in hearing Simeone’s words in what Kiko said, but it feels as if the Argentinian is making his claim in response to Alemany’s arrival. We shall see which of them wins that particular tussle.
In the short term, the prospect of Lookman and Ruggeri vs. Yamal and Koundé over two matches in the next ten days is even more riveting. Welcome to Spain, welcome to Atleti, Ademola.
