But for a disagreement on the valuation of Super Eagles’ star, Ademola Lookman, the former Everton forward would have been playing for Bayern Munich instead of his current club, Atletico Madrid, reports from Germany have revealed.

According to the reports, Lookman had already agreed terms with Bayern Munich before the deal fell through due to Atalanta’s monetary demands.

Lookman was one of the most sought-after wingers in Europe for a number of transfer windows ever since he rose to prominence to Charlton’s senior squad having worked his way through their U-18 side.

Since he burst onto the scene for the English Championship side, he’s had quite a travelled career between loan spells and permanent stints at Everton, RB Leipzig, Fulham, Leicester City, and Atalanta, and Atlético Madrid where he currently resides.

Bayern Munich were one from a laundry list of clubs throughout Europe that had expressed interest in the Nigerian international, and their interest has spanned throughout the course of different windows.

However, per information from Sport Bild’s Christian Falk and Bild’s Julian Agardi (via @iMiaSanMia), the German Rekordmeister actually had an agreement in place to sign Lookman from Atalanta between the player himself and his management, which is the ROOF agency.

That agency also represents Konrad Laimer, Serge Gnabry, and Leon Goretzka.

Lookman was ready to make the move to Munich and very much wanted to join the Bundesliga champions, but finances ultimately prevented a move from happening in the end. Atalanta did not want to allow a move to occur under the offer that Bayern had presented at the time of a loan with an option to buy for a package of worth roughly 28 million euros. At the time, the Serie A outfit felt that fee was not considerable enough and they also preferred a permanent sale of the player, which they wound up getting with his move to Atlético Madrid for a fee of 35 million euros.

From the top down, Bayern board member for sport Max Eberl was only granted limited resources to try to get Lookman on loan, as it had become a policy at a certain point in the transfer window to only try to get loan deals done.

In the case of Lookman with Atalanta strongly preferring a permanent sale, Eberl was always up against it to try to get a loan move with an option to buy over the line.

Meanwhile, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has described his former Everton teammate Lookman as one of the most gifted dribblers he’s ever played with.

Calvert-Lewin made the remark at the end of an interview with CBS Golazo, which saw him choose five of his former Everton teammates for a five-a-side team.

Lookman spent two years at Everton, making 48 appearances for the club.

While he didn’t really show the qualities we see today, Lookman’s dribbling wasn’t lost on Calvert-Lewin at least.

After selecting Lookman for his five-a-side team, Calvert-Lewin said: “He’s probably one of the most gifted players I’ve played with in terms of dribbling and the way he handles the ball.

“I’m so happy for him the way he’s got his move to Atletico now and how he’s thriving there – I think it’s much deserved.

“He’s bided his time, and now he’s there and everyone’s seeing what a great player he is.”

Lookman has rather thrived since leaving Everton, but his exit was unavoidable.

In 2019, Marco Silva shared the reasons behind the sale of Lookman, admitting (via Mirror): “At the end of last season he came to see me in his office to tell me what he was thinking, about his desire, his future and what he would like to do.

“I respect his opinion but I said to him ‘you are in my plans again’ Then came an offer to the club, and like you know I don’t like to talk about this side of things, but he had just two years left on his contract with us and so then we are talking about many, many things.”

Silva had said that Lookman had been unhappy when he arrived as manager. Ultimately, it was futile trying to keep him.

Lookman then completed a permanent move to RB Leipzig, which did wonders for his development.

A move to Atalanta then brought him on even more, to the point he won African Football of the Year in 2024.

After joining Atletico Madrid in the winter transfer window for around £30 million, Lookman is