“I wanted him at Celtic”, Brendan’s comments on Europa League Final star | OneFootball

Ademola Lookman stole the show in the Europa League Final in Dublin as his hat-trick fired Atalanta to a 3-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen. The performance of the former Charlton youth prospect has resulted in some comments about a link to Celtic coming to light.

Back in September 2021, Brendan Rodgers welcomed Lookman to Leicester City on a loan deal.

Speaking to BBC Leicester, Rodgers admitted that he wanted to sign Lookman when he was Celtic manager in his first spell.

“I wanted to take him to Celtic when he was at Charlton. I was aware of him when he was 15/16.

“He has great dribbling ability, physically he’s good, works so hard, has an eye for a goal. My hope is that he can flourish here.”

The Nigeria Internationalist would go onto make 42 appearances for Rodgers that season, scoring 8 goals and assisting 5 times. This form resulted in the Italian side swooping in to sign him – helped by their Head of Senior Recruitment Lee Congerton.

Congerton opened up about his time at Celtic, admitting that talent ID was taking place but getting deals in place struggled because of the hierarchy at the club.

“At Celtic we had no money. Peter Lawwell is a nice man, he’s an accountant. Brendan told me we needed pace and power, speed.

“We all know PSG has an amazing youth programme with players at the time who were never going to play for PSG.

“Two players we tried to sign during my time were Diaby, who is now at Aston Villa, and Nkunku who is now at Chelsea. But there were several players I didn’t want to be anywhere near and that is why I left. Peter knows that and so did Brendan.”

Rodgers and Congerton were often criticised for the calibre of some of their signings in the Irishman’s first spell. There were some good bits of business but there were plenty that left a lot to be imagined. The club must make sure that they do not make the same mistake this summer and allow Rodgers to get ‘his’ players in to allow the club to compete in Europe.