Lookman right to leave England behind as he etches his name into Nigerian football folklore
LIttLe more than four years ago, when we met at rB Leipzig’s training complex, Ademola Lookman spoke sensibly about the big decision looming over his international future.
At 22, he had won england caps from Under 19 to Under 21 level and was playing Champions League football for Julian Nagelsmann, then one of the rising coaches in europe.
One approach from Nigeria had been rejected, but Lookman admitted he was interested in savouring big international tournaments and considering the idea of switching allegiance to the nation of his African heritage.
‘I’m open and it’s good to have different opportunities,’ he said back in December 2019. ‘It’s a serious decision. We’ll see. International football is a big thing if you want to keep progressing, which I do.’
On friday, at the age of 26, Lookman etched his name into Nigerian football folklore forever, scoring the only goal to beat Angola in the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations. Six days earlier, he had scored twice in a 2-0 win against Cameroon in the last 16.
He has achieved the unthinkable by eclipsing team-mate Victor Osimhen, the striker everyone wants to sign from Napoli, and his father was bursting with pride as he found himself in demand for post-match reaction. ‘to say I am happy is an understatement,’ beamed Ademola Senior. ‘I am overwhelmed.’
Lookman is one of those players who slipped the academy system. Charlton stumbled upon him on south London’s Sunday League circuit, playing with his mates for Waterloo, and gave him a scholarship.
there has always been a delightful unpolished and uncoached quality to his football. It might be partly the reason he has not prospered in the Premier League, but he is flourishing with Atalanta in Italy’s Serie A and with Nigeria, who now face South Africa in the Afcon semi-finals on Wednesday.
Lookman is an intelligent and determined young man. He told how he liked to immerse himself in books about personal development and clearly has an appetite to make the most of his talents.
this attitude is clear from the career decisions he has made, refusing to linger at clubs where he wasn’t playing because he figured inertia would halt his progress — and he was almost certainly right.
Instead, he has kept moving and continued to develop, a fine example for anyone seeking to squeeze the most from a short career, particularly those emerging from our multicultural communities for whom pathways can be more complicated.
Lookman is one of 15 englishborn players at this Afcon tournament in the Ivory Coast.
tarryn Allarakhia, Haji Mnoga and Ben Starkie all represented tanzania from non-League football. Allarakhia is at Wealdstone, Mnoga is on loan at Aldershot from Portsmouth and Starkie is playing for Ilkeston, his registration held jointly with Alfreton. Mo Sagaf, a Londoner born in Somalia who plays for Boreham Wood, was also in the squad.
‘A dream come true,’ said Allarakhia as he retraced the whirlwind from National League into international football, sharing the pitch with stars such as Mo Salah, Achraf Hakimi and Hakim Ziyech.
‘everything happened in a week just before Christmas,’ he said. ‘I was out with my girlfriend when I got a message from a scout in tanzania saying, “I’m going to call you in five minutes”.
‘the scout called me, then the head coach called me, then he came to watch me play and met my family and said he liked me as a player.
‘We weren’t thinking too far ahead, but on January 1 I flew out to tanzania, then to Cairo where we played a friendly against egypt and then off to Ivory Coast.’
Allarakhia is 26, the same age as Lookman. He came on for his debut against egypt and started the first game of Group f against Morocco, semi-finalists at the last World Cup and among the favourites to win Afcon until they were surprisingly knocked out by South Africa in the last 16.
Playing on the left wing, he found himself directly up against winger Ziyech, who is on loan at Galatasaray from Chelsea, and right back Hakimi, of Paris Saint- Germain. West Ham’s Nayef Aguerd was also in the opposition line-up. ‘I don’t get starstruck, but standing in the tunnel next to those Morocco players, stepping into the noise of the stadium, listening to the national anthems, I had goosebumps,’ he said.
Back home his father Yousef, a baker who arrived in east London at the age of 10, gathered friends and family together to watch on tV.
‘It was tough with the heat and the quality of the players, but I’m so grateful for the experience,’ said Allarakhia, who was back in Wealdstone’s team for Saturday’s 1- 1 draw against London rivals Barnet.
‘I’ve worked so hard to improve my game and my attitude in the last couple of years. When you do that, good things can happen.
‘I need to make sure I work ever harder and take these experiences into my game and hopefully there will be more opportunities.’
With tanzania set to co-host the Afcon with Kenya and Uganda in 2027, there could hardly be any better motivation.
Lookman’s next challenge, meanwhile, is to find a way past ronwen Williams, the South Africa goalkeeper who saved four of five penalties in their win over Cape Verde on Saturday.
‘He should be made Minister of finance,’ quipped team-mate Grant Kekana after Saturday’s quarter-final. ‘He can save South Africa’s economy.’