When Eintracht Frankfurt faces Atalanta B.C. in the CL on Wednesday evening, all eyes will be on one player who has unfinished business in Frankfurt. Since his legendary performance in the 2024 Europa League final, he is also considered a certified Bundesliga menace. Of course, we’re talking about Ademola Lookman.
The Nigerian played against Eintracht four times with RB Leipzig. The record? Dreamlike from Frankfurt’s perspective, rather traumatic from his: three defeats, all three in Frankfurt. No goals, no assists. So far, SGE has been his personal kryptonite.
In Italy, he became a Germany menace
In 2022, Lookman left Leipzig and moved to Atalanta for nearly ten million euros. After tough years with many loans, his definitive career breakthrough followed in beautiful northern Italy.
In the 2022/23 season, he collected 21 scorer points, and 19 the following year. Then came his career highlight: the 2024 Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen, the absolute powerhouse of the season.
Lookman scored all three goals in the surprising 3-0 victory, achieving a final hat-trick that put him on the map across Europe overnight. Since then, every Bundesliga team knows exactly what it means when he has a good day.
From final joy to coach frustration
In the following season, the 1.74-meter man delivered reliably again: 20 scorers in Serie A, seven in the Champions League. And logically: this aroused desires. Inter wanted him desperately, Lookman wanted to go to Inter. So much so that he publicly applied pressure on Instagram. But the transfer fell through after much back and forth. The result: Lookman had to stay, and the atmosphere in Bergamo was unusually frosty.
The relationship with coach Ivan Juric eventually became a powder keg. The sometimes quite authoritarian Croatian criticized “lack of fighting spirit” in press conferences and benched Lookman multiple times at the start of the season.
The conflict escalated in the fall when Lookman reacted angrily to his substitution in the CL game against Olympique Marseille. Juric grabbed him authoritatively by the arm, and Lookman was not pleased, firing back verbally.
Staff and club officials had to intervene to prevent a more physical confrontation. The scene made headlines across Europe and showed just how tense things had become.
Ademola Lookman clashes with Ivan Jurić after being substituted off. 🇭🇷🇳🇬
– Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Lookman: Back to old form in Frankfurt?
Juric is no longer the coach. Lookman, however, has stayed. But his name remains a hot topic in Bergamo because his sporting value and personal unrest have been balancing each other out for months.
And that’s precisely why the duel in Frankfurt has a special flavor. Lookman returns to the stadium on Wednesday where he has never managed to make an impact. He will certainly want to show that Frankfurt is no longer a problem place for him. The 27-year-old is likely aware that since his Leverkusen hat-trick, no one in Germany will underestimate him anymore.
📸 Marco Luzzani – 2025 Getty Images
If he manages another hat-trick against a Bundesliga team, a 5-1 victory for the Italians would be within reach. Or will Atalanta, like Galatasaray, be crushed 1-5? Because that’s how both of Frankfurt’s CL home games have ended so far. A spectacle seems guaranteed, not just because of Lookman.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
📸 Marco Luzzani – 2025 Getty Images
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