Ademola Lookman: Can Nigeria become African giants again?

The biggest question on the lips of every African football fan leading to Monday night was who would be named African Player of the Year at the CAF Awards in Morocco. Was it going to be Ademola Lookman or Achraf Hakimi?

We finally got the long-awaited answer late Monday night when FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced the winner alongside his host, Patrice Motsepe.

Ademola Lookman became the latest Nigerian footballer to be crowned African Footballer of the Year. He follows in the illustrious footsteps of legends Rasheed Yekini, Emmanuel Amuneke, Victor Ikpeba, and Nwankwo Kanu, as well as his teammate, Victor Osimhen, who won the award last year.

Lookman also became the first Nigerian player born outside the country to win the coveted prize. He and captain William Troost-Ekong were also the first Nigerian players born outside the country to be nominated for the award.

A son of the soil moment

Dressed in an immaculate flowing dark green agbada with fila and black beads, Lookman, born in south London, looked like Yoruba royalty on the night. The first thing he did was acknowledge his roots.

“Nigeria, mo ki gbogbo yin, adupe,” Lookman said in Yoruba, acknowledging the immense support he has received from back home. (Nigeria, I greet you all; thank you).

Only a few years ago, he was part of the England squad that won the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup. However, as his early club career struggled, the England senior side ignored him. He plodded on, fighting through loan deals before establishing himself at Serie A side Atalanta Bergamo, from where he pledged allegiance to Nigeria, his parents’ country of birth.

In 2023, he achieved the rare feat of leading his country and club to the finals of major competitions. While the Super Eagles failed to win the Africa Cup of Nations title in Abidjan in February, he dusted it all off as he scored a hat trick to lead Atalanta to a 3-0 defeat of Leverkusen in the UEFA Europa League final.

“This award is a blessing to me and my family. Four years ago, I was down,” he said. “Don’t let your failures weigh you down [so much] that they break your wings. Turn your pain into power and fly,” he concluded with a piece of advice to every young person working towards a career breakthrough.

Nigeria’s new golden generation?

It is not often that a country produces back-to-back Player of the Year winners. It is rare to find a country with two players worthy of that accolade on the same team simultaneously.

Apart from Cote d’Ivoire, which was blessed to have two POTY winners in Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure simultaneously, no other African team has had that luxurious quality in the last 15 years. However, even the Elephants struggled to win the AFCON, only winning it after Drogba retired from the squad in 2015.

Before then, Nigeria’s Yekini and Amuneke in the mid-1990s and Cameroon’s Patrick Mboma and Samuel Etoo in the early 2000s all won the AFCON.

So, what can Nigeria do to make an impact now that it has two top-quality Player of the Year winners?

The Super Eagles have already qualified for next year’s AFCON, which will be played in Morocco. With Osimhen and Lookman leading their attack, they will once again be among the favourites to win the tournament. They need to win it to cement their continental legacy.

Both players seem to have a good rapport. Lookman acknowledged Osimhen as one of the people who welcomed him with open arms and went ahead to teach him Yoruba during training.

However, the measure of this generation will be their qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Nigeria failed to reach Qatar 2022, where Lookman debuted in the final qualifying matches against Ghana. This time around, they are already struggling in the qualifiers, fifth in a group of six, including Rwanda, South Africa, Benin, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe.

Can the superstars of Nigeria turn things around when the qualifying matches resume in March 2025? Or will coaching problems continue to be the Achilles’ heel of this golden generation?

Lookman’s Player of the Year win encourages one to be positive for the future. One can only hope that the rest of the team rises in unison to turn the tables in our favour.