Super Eagles and Atalanta attacker Ademola Lookman has been linked with a move to Inter Milan, but the Italian giants have pulled out of the deal, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 27-year-old has made it clear he no longer wants to play for La Dea, but the club have declined the attacker's wish to leave in the same vein.
Inter Milan submitted three offers for the 2024 CAF Player of the Year, but Ivan Juric's side are maintaining their stance about not letting Lookman join another Italian club.
As a result, the UEFA Champions League finalists pulled out of negotiations for Lookman, and instead, signed 22-year-old Andy Alune Diouf from RC Lens for €25m, less than half of what La Dea demanded for the England-born Nigerian forward.
Why Inter moved on from Lookman
Inter's President, Beppe Marotta, revealed his side opted against meeting Atalanta's unreasonable demands and instead, changed their approach to sign younger players.
“We start from a very strong consideration: Inter have rejected some sales requests for the best players, and this seems to me an act of strength on the part of the company,” the 68-year-old said in quotes revealed by Sky Sports IT.
“Then, we tried to seize the opportunities of this Italian market. We must consider Italian football now secondary because you can not go crazy, and you have to be very creative.
“There was talk of Lookman, and I do not deny it, but we found a company like Atalanta that, rightly, had the full right not to put him on the Italian market.
“We focused on the new model of investing in young people, and we have integrated five young people, four purchases plus Pio Esposito, who comes from the youth sector, with an average age of 21, compared to 29 in the general average age.
We are modelling a squad in tune with the programs of the property and the club,” the Italian concluded.
