With the 2025/26 Serie A campaign to begin this coming weekend, the future of Ademola Lookman is as murky as ever.
The reigning CAF Player of the Year, presently away from Atalanta on strike, has been in England awaiting movement in negotiations between La Dea and Inter, whom he has stated his desire to join throughout the summer.
His decision to delete all traces of his parent club from his socials, hand in a transfer request and put out a statement accusing the Bergamo side of broken promises were part of a ploy to force the move through at Inter’s urging. However, Atalanta have refused to budge on their valuation and, despite a suggestion that they would up their offer, Inter have not stepped forward either.
Ademola Lookman transfer to Inter: The state of play
According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, negotiations between Inter and Atalanta have now irretrievably broken down. The Nerazzurri are now set to inform Lookman that the transfer is off, an undesirable state of affairs for the forward who has risked everything to play at San Siro.
The upshot of this is that the Nigeria international will have to swallow his pride and return to Bergamo, a humiliating turn of events after he tanked his capital with the La Dea faithful. For his body of work with Atalanta, he could rightly be considered a club legend; his antics, however, have surely taken that away from him.
🚨🇳🇬 Inter will talk to Ademola Lookman agent in next 24h, expected to inform the Nigerian forward about deal OFF.
Negotiations with Atalanta are completely frozen since two weeks ago.
Lookman deal was never linked to Nicola Zalewski’s move to Atalanta, as always reported. pic.twitter.com/3D8mRrWp2b
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 18, 2025
It could all have been handled so differently, even without the complete context of what went on behind the scenes.
What can we learn from Ademola Lookman’s transfer debacle?
Having seen it all play out, here are three important lessons from the Lookman saga that footballers would do well to heed.
Avoid the nuclear option
It is increasingly all the rage but, unless in the most extreme of circumstances, it is unwise to blow everything up. There simply is too much to lose going that route.
In any public dispute with management, the player is already at a disadvantage, as the organisation inevitably has greater media sway and can control the narrative. Knowing that, the only way the player can fight back is on socials, so why give up that right?
By wiping the club off your socials, as Lookman did, you are playing into the club’s narrative of you as disloyal and/or insubordinate. Fans who may have been previously conflicted about the situation are then given no choice but to run with the club’s spin. In addition, the action frames the player’s fight as being against the club (and, by extension, its fans) rather than the club management. Small distinction, but an important one.
Ensure you have maximum leverage
When a footballer signs a contract, it is a transfer of power to the club who have made a financial commitment to them. It obligates the player to play for them for the duration of a contract; no more, no less. The club, therefore, have every right to insist on this, with the only out for the player being a release clause or similar inserted in the contract. No, verbal agreements do not count and are not legally binding in any way.
The presence of said clause is one of the situations where the player has leverage. Another is if his contract has only a year left to run, as most clubs are unwilling to lose a player for nothing.
In Lookman’s case, not only is there no release clause in his most recent contract, but he still has two years to run. This means that he has no choice but to return to Bergamo, tail between his legs, as he cannot possibly sit out two years. That or find a loan that would cover his wages, and even then Atalanta could be spiteful and insist on him returning anyway.
Confirm the same level of commitment from your suitors
If, however, a player decides to burn the whole thing down, the least he can do is be absolutely sure that the suitor is as committed to going all the way for them as well.
This can be tricky to assess, but a good place to start is frank conversations and a financial assessment of his preferred club. How high are they willing to go? How high can they even afford to go within the financial regulations?
Just as important: what exact figure is the current club looking for? How flexible are they with that figure? If push came to shove and the current club, offended by the player going on strike, decided to be vindictive and insist on that number exactly, would the bidder be willing and able to pay that much?
All through, Atalanta have been clear: they want €50 million. Inter have bid up to €45 million with add-ons, but seem unable to go any higher. This suggests there is some financial limitation there. The fact they actually pushed for Lookman to strike (as opposed to the player choosing to do so himself) was already a bad sign, but if he was going to accede, he absolutely needed to extract some guarantees from Inter.
Now, he has been left holding the bag, in limbo and looking extremely unprofessional.
