Signing Of The Season? Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman Is Scoring Like Cristiano Ronaldo

Andriy Shevchenko. Diego Milito. Cristiano Ronaldo. Krzysztof Piątek. Romelu Lukaku. Ademola Lookman.

When looking at the complete list of players who scored 12 or more goals in their first 20 Serie A matches, it is certainly no surprise to see the first three, while Lukaku’s impact in his first spell at Inter is undeniable.

Poland international Piątek may have faded after his incredibly bright start – and a big money move to AC Milan – but just being among such illustrious company shows just how good Lookman has been thus far for Atalanta.

Indeed, the 25-year-old has 12 goals (and three assists) in just 19 Serie A appearances, with five of those games seeing him introduced as a substitute. It is also worth noting that only one of his goals – his first – has come in a match where he began on the bench, while Lookman added two more goals in his only Coppa Italia start too.

Making this feat even more remarkable is the fact that over the previous four seasons combined, he managed a total of just 10 league goals in 92 appearances. Obviously part of that is simply part of the maturation process, but a deeper look at his journey so far offers far more nuance.

After starting out with Charlton, Lookman moved to Everton in January 2017 in an £11 million ($13.41 million) deal, with Ronaldo Koeman in charge at Goodison Park. By the time the player moved to RB Leipzig on loan a year later, he had seen the Dutch boss sacked, played under caretaker boss David Unsworth and then the permanent new manager Sam Allardyce.

Five goals in 11 Bundesliga appearances saw Lookman impress the German side, but he would spend the 2018/19 campaign back at Everton, playing for Marco Silva following the dismissal of Allardyce.

“As a young player it’s difficult going through that process, because you never know what the next manager is going to think,” Lookman told Sarah Shephard of The Athletic recently.

“But if you believe in your ability, you believe that whatever manager comes in, he’s gonna like you. But at the time, they were changing managers because the team wasn’t stable in itself. So they weren’t going to take a risk on putting me in.”

A £22.5 million ($27.44 million) deal would see Lookman return to Leipzig, followed by loan spells with Fulham and Leicester City, but eventually found himself craving some stability.

“I had a few offers in England and I was thinking, ‘what do I really need next season?” he continued in that aforementioned interview with The Athletic.

“I sat down with my family and with Atalanta coming in, we just made up our minds that this was another stage in the journey that we need to go through, because we felt like it was important that there was another layer added to me.”

One important factor in the deal was undoubtedly Atalanta director Lee Congerton, who was at Leicester with Lookman and who is responsible for scouting new players for La Dea.

But also waiting in Italy was Gian Piero Gasperini, who has been at the helm in Bergamo since June 2016, only seven months after an 18-year-old Lookman made his professional debut for Charlton.

It also means Gasperini has been Atalanta’s Coach for over six and a half years, when the second-longest serving boss in Serie A is Stefano Pioli who has only spent three years and three months on the bench at AC Milan.

No other Coach has yet managed two full years in charge, a statistic which underlines just how unique the situation is at Atalanta, something that their newest star has already fully embraced.

“We’ve an amazing team, a strong team, a team full of talent, a team full of hunger and passion, so there are big things on the horizon for the team,” Lookman told The Times.

“I’ve started eating a lot of plain foods like white pasta, like more fish. That’s my diet. No sauce. Some vegetables. Sleep’s very important, trying to get in eight hours. After games, I’ll do recovery, maybe going into the cryo chamber, doing some upper body work, some stretching.

“[Gasperini] is intense, a strong man, a top coach,” he continued. “He always wants us to attack, he loves seeing goals. But there’s a structure: he wants us to build through the thirds. I definitely have a defensive role, to help the team within the structure, but that defensive role also allows me to attack.”

That willingness to adapt, change, grow and improve has clearly served Lookman well, his 12 goals putting him behind only Nigeria team-mate Victor Osimhen – subject of this previous column – in the race to be Serie A’s top scorer.

It is an incredible return on the €15 million ($16.34 million) Atalanta paid Leipzig to sign him this past summer, and his new boss is clearly delighted with what he has seen so far.

“He has technique, pace, is a player any coach would be happy with,” Gasperini told Sky Italia back in October. “We realised pretty quickly what he was capable of, he was convincing from the start.”

So while those of us watching from the sidelines are stunned to see Ademola Lookman’s form putting alongside Shevchenko, Ronaldo and Milito, the man himself believes he is simply doing what he should be doing.

“Of course, I expected it,” he told Sky Italia when asked about his incredible scoring streak. “Maybe it’s a surprise to you, but I know what I can bring, I know what I can do.”

Now the whole of Serie A knows too.