Chelsea join race for Africa’s best player

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 17 Dec 2024 07:14 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea have joined Arsenal in the race to sign Atalanta’s Nigerian sensation Ademola Lookman.

That is according to Sacha Tovalieri, who reports that the Blues are in contact with Lookman’s entourage with a view to tabling a bid for the attacker at the end of the season.

Tovalieri adds that Atalanta have accepted that they won’t be able to keep Lookman past the end of the season.

They will accept bids of €50 million for the Nigerian star, who on Monday was crowned as African Footballer of the Year.

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Tovalieri says that there is also interest from Man Utd and Liverpool, while Arsenal’s admiration for Lookman is well established and the Gunners are believed to be in the lead currently.

Lookman has emerged as one of Europe’s most admired players in 2024, scoring a legendary hattrick for Atalanta in the 3-0 Europa League final victory over Bayer Leverkusen.

He has continued his brilliant form into the 2024/2025 season, scoring 11 goals and delivering five assists in all competitions to lead Atalanta to the top of Serie A.

So impressive has Lookman been, he has more goal contributions - goals and assists - than any other Serie A player in all competitions this calendar year.

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PSG close to Lookman last summer

This has attracted the interest of some of Europe’s biggest clubs, with PSG close to signing the Nigerian in the summer.

In the closing days of the summer window, PSG turned Lookman’s head and he agreed personal terms on a contract worth €5 million year until 2029.

Lookman stunned Atalanta by informing them that he wanted to leave the club for PSG.

This move infuriated Atalanta, who reluctantly were forced to leave Lookman out of their squad for their opening game of the Serie A season, a 4-0 win at Lecce.

Eventually, the move did not go through and Lookman was reintegrated into the Atalanta team where he has enjoyed a brilliant start to the season.