4 Times Players Have Called Out Gian Piero Gasperini After Ademola Lookman
- Ademola Lookman and Gian Piero Gasperini have traded words public since Atalanta lost to Club Brugge
- The Italian manager called out the player over his penalty miss during the 3-1 Champions League defeat
- The African Footballer of the Year fired back at the manager, slamming him for being hurtful and disrespectful
Atalanta were knocked out of the UEFA Champions last night by Club Brugge during the knockout playoff second-leg match at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo.
The incidents after the match have set the media ablaze since then after manager Gian Piero Gasperini called out Ademola Lookman over his penalty miss during the match.
Source: Getty Images
Lookman responded with a statement of his own via his social media handles, and it has brought back previous incidents when the manager clashed with his players.
Legit.ng looks at four times Atalanta players clashed with Gasperini.
Players who called out Gasperini
1. Ademola Lookman
Lookman became the latest player to clash with the Italian manager after he was “disrespectfully” publicly criticised over his penalty miss against Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League.
The London-born star responded with a statement on social media and has earned the support of fans and media, particularly those from his home country, Nigeria.
2. Joakim Maehle
Danish footballer Maehle played for Atalanta for two seasons between 2021 and 2023 before leaving the club in the summer of 2023 and joining German Bundesliga club VfL Stuttgart.
According to Tipsbladet, Maehle, speaking about his time at the club, slammed Gasperini for running the team like a dictator and not giving players freedom as if it were a prison. He noted an incident when he was scolded for driving his compatriot, Rasmus Hojlund, to training.
Source: Getty Images
3. Papu Gomez
Gomez spent most of his career so far at Atalanta, seven years between 2014 and 2021 and was the team's captain for four years. However, he left on acrimonious terms after clashing with Gasperini.
According to Football Italia, the Argentine accused the Italian of attempting to physically attack him in the dressing room over an incident on the pitch in the Champions League match against Midtjylland in December 2020, and their relationship never recovered until he left the club six months later.
4. Merih Demiral
The Turkish centre-back spent two seasons in Bergamo, one of which was on loan from Juventus, but left a season after making the deal permanent the following year, moving to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli.
Demiral told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he doesn't like the way Gasperini treats players and admitted that he never said goodbye to the manager when he left the club, underlining how broken their relationship was before he departed.
Ademola Lookman's penalty record
Legit.ng analysed Lookman's penalty record after Gasperini labelled the reigning African Footballer of the Year as one of the worst penalty-takers he's ever seen.
The former RB Leipzig star, before yesterday's miss, had only missed one penalty in his career, the infamous failed Panenka attempt during his time at Fulham.
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Source: Legit.ng
