3 Events That Led to Ademola Lookman’s Broken Relationship With Gasperini

• Ademola Lookman and Gian Piero Gasperini engaged in a media faceoff after Atalanta vs Club Brugge
• The Super Eagles star fired back after the Italian manager publicly lampooned him over a missed penalty
• It has been a long time coming for the relationship between the two, as it has been shredding for a while

Ademola Lookman and Gian Piero Gasperini’s relationship has totally broken down after the incident following Atalanta's elimination from the UEFA Champions League.

Atalanta lost the first leg of the Champions League knockout playoff to Club 2-1 under controversial conditions in Belgium and has the second leg in Italy to redeem themselves.

Brugge raced to a 3-0 lead in the first half, and Atalanta were well on their way out of the tournament unless a miracle happened, which eventually never did.

Lookman returned from injury and was introduced in the second half. He had an immediate impact and scored within 36 seconds, but things soon went downhill.

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He missed a penalty, which was saved by Simon Mignolet. Gasperini publicly lashed him, and the player responded with a statement on social media.

That was not the start of their relationship deteriorating as it has been coming since the summer when the Nigerian attempted to leave the club.

Legit.ng looks at the three events that summarised their broken relationship, as first called by Football Italia.

3 events that broke Lookman and Gasperini’s relationship

1. Denied PSG move in the summer

The beginning of the end of the relationship between the two started at the start of the season when Paris Saint-Germain showed interest in signing the forward, few months after winning the UEFA Europa League for Atalanta with his hat trick against Bayer Leverkusen.

The Italians were angered by the fact that the French club approached the player first, and he agreed to personal terms. Atalanta refused to sanction the move, and this did not go down well with Lookman, who asked to be left out of the team for the first three games of the season.

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2. Halftime substitution at Venezia

The Super Eagles of Nigeria were held hostage at Al Abraq International Airport in Libya during the October international break, and Lookman, fresh off that experience, was named in the starting 11 but was hauled off at halftime.

Gasperini claimed the former RB Leipzig star was struggling, and that was why he substituted. This decision was said to have angered Lookman, who had created three chances and took a shot on target in the half, and co-owner Stephen Pagluica flew in from the USA to intervene.

3. Penalty saga vs Club Brugge

The final straw that broke the camel's back was the incident after the 3-1 loss to Brugge. Lookman reached his breaking point and released a statement on his official X account. He confirmed other incidents had happened, which he did not talk about.

“In truth, I have dealt with many difficult moments during my time here - the majority of which I have never spoken about because in my opinion the team must always be protected and must come first. This makes what happened last night even more hurtful,” a part of his statement read.

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According to Gianluca Di Marzio, club president Antonio Percassi is expected to hold crisis talks with both today to focus on the rest of the season, with Lookman expected to leave the club in the summer.

Del Piero supports Lookman

Legit.ng reported that Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero supported Lookman after the African Best fired back at Gasperini's insult with a statement on social media.

The multiple-time Serie A winner admitted that mistakes are normal in football and that he would have been furious, too, if publicly lashed by his manager.

Source: Legit.ng