Revealed: Why Inter Milan head coach wanted Lookman during the summer transfer window

Super Eagles and Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman came close to joining Inter Milan during the summer transfer window, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 28-year-old came off his best-ever goalscoring season, finding the back of the net 20 times in 40 games across all competitions for La Dea.

Considering he'd fallen out with the then-coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, and probably won all of the silverware he could at Bergamo, the former Leicester City attacker handed in a transfer request with a move to Inter in mind.

Although he turned Napoli down, Atalanta prevented Lookman from moving to the San Siro as they didn't want to sell him to another Italian club.

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Why Inter Milan wanted Lookman

Inter's President, Beppe Marotta, revealed his side opted against meeting Atalanta's unreasonable demands for Lookman and instead, changed their approach to sign younger players, considering his squad were the oldest in the 2024/2025 UEFA Champions League campaign.

The club coach, Cristian Chivu, initially discussed the Nigerian's potential arrival with Marotta in June, and was given a green light, as per FC Inter 1908.

The Romanian manager wanted Lookman because he wanted to take some load off Lautaro Martinez, and wanted the Super Eagles forward to have more game time with Marcus Thuram.

After the short post-World Cup holidays, Inter thought about fielding a new system, to alternate with the trusty 3-5-2, or a 3-4-2-1 with two players in the half-space behind a centre-forward, and Lookman was seen as the missing piece, the player able with speed and dribbling, to give a touch of unpredictability to the manoeuvre.

However, an agreement couldn't be reached. The 2010 treble winners projected a €40m-45m bargain for the transfer, but all of their effort fell on deaf ears.

After the move to Inter Milan failed, the player opted to skip training, missing Atalanta's pre-season preparations, before returning to action.

Upon his return, his lack of fitness was evident, and with Mario Retegui gone, Ivan Juric's side have struggled to get goals this season.

A move away from Bergamo in January isn't out of the question for Lookman, as Galatasaray are monitoring the transfer situation of the 2024 CAF Player of the Year.