Nigeria international winger Ademola Lookman took his goal tally for the season to 11 after netting a brace against Juventus for Atalanta in their 3-3 draw in the Italian Serie A.
Lookman handed his team a 4th minute lead which but it was cancelled by Angel Di Maria before Arkadiusz Milik put his team 2-1 up, 30 minutes later. Immediately after the restart Joakim Maehle drew the away team level, piling more misery on Juventus, who are battling a 15 points deduction due to financial irregularities.
Lookman handed the team again in the 53rd minute with a well placed header but Juventus struck back 13 minutes later through Danilo and the game stayed levelled like that till after 90 minutes.
After the game, the discussions were centered around Lookman who is now seen by many as the signing of the season following his €15m move from RB Leipzig in the summer. The 25 year old is second in the goal scorers chart with only his international teammate Victor Osimhen ahead of him with 13 goals.
With four senior caps to his name for the Super Eagles of Nigeria, he could have been pushing for a call up to the English national team based on his form if the present coach of the English team Gareth Southgate had his way.
Southgate was his coach at U21 level with England and the coach tried to stop the former England U19, U20 and U21 winger from representing Nigeria when the discussion about his possible switch of allegiance first came up.
His form this season has forced us to revisit the issue again because it’s looking like England’s lost is now Nigeria’s gain as the Super Eagles get set to return to action in March for the AFCON 2024 qualifiers.
Southgate speaking back then said Lookman is among the players he hope to see in the senior colours of England after turning down three approaches from Nigeria.
“I know every country is quite aggressive in their recruiting and I know they have always had an interest in him, but he is playing and has been in our squads, the 20s, 21s,” Southgate said in 2018.
“So in terms of encouragement through game time, we are doing as much as we possibly can. Lookman knows he has a future with us”.
