Super Eagles and Atalanta BC forward, Ademola Olajade Lookman, has set sights on taking Nigeria to the AFCON 2025 and 2026 FIFA World Cup tournaments, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 27-year-old put his name on the World stage this year with scintillating performances in the AFCON 2023 tournament, the Coppa Italia, and the UEFA Europa League.
The former RB Leipzig man scored the joint-most goals for Nigeria at the AFCON 2023 tournament in Ivory Coast, and led Atalanta to the UEFA Europa League triumph against an unbeaten Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
His brilliance saw him nominated for the Ballon d’Or award, and he nicked 14th place in the final standings.
Away from the glam, the South-London raised Super Eagles man wants to qualify for the next International tournaments with Nigeria and is confident the team can gel under interim manager, Augustine Eguavoen.
“It has been great. I have known him, obviously as the coach before because he [Eguavoen] gave me my first call-up to play for Nigeria, so I know him very well.
We’ve shown good performances as a team in these Afcon qualifiers and now we need to do better on a consistent basis. We’ve won two games and drawn one game, so we will continue in this manner, and try to win our games.
Obviously the goal is to qualify for the Afcon and World Cup, so we are looking to do those things,” the ex-Fulham man said in an interview with 54FootballX.
Ademola Lookman has continued his great form for Gian Piero Gasperini’s team this season, scoring four goals and providing four assists in seven league games this season.