Brendan Rodgers reveals Celtic 'couldn't afford' Europa League final hero despite transfer attempt

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has revealed he once tried to sign Europa League hero Ademola Lookman during his first spell with the Hoops. Lookman scored a hat-trick for Atalanta in the Europa League final earlier this week, ending Bayer Leverkusen’s hopes of a treble and a totally unbeaten campaign.

The 26-year-old has had an up and down career, bursting onto the scene with Charlton Athletic before going on to join Everton and then RB Leipzig. He later has loan spells with Fulham and Leicester City before making the move to Bergamo and Atalanta in 2022. The winger has garnered a reputation of being a dangerous winger in Serie A, scoring 22 goals in 60 league appearances for his current club, and he single-handedly secured the club’s first ever European title earlier this week.

Celtic boss Rodgers has worked with Lookman previously at Leicester, and speaking about the England-born Nigeria international’s new found success, he told TalkSPORT: “The only sad part for us [at Leicester] was that, at the end of that season, we could have bought him for £14million but you think back to that summer, we couldn't sign any players.

"One of my guys who I worked closely with at Celtic and Leicester is a guy called Lee Congerton and by then Lee was the general manager of Atalanta. When he knew that we weren't able to take him, he took him then to Atalanta and he has done absolutely brilliant there so I am so happy, the goals he scored! Especially the second and third ones.

"He scored some massive goals for me at Leicester, he scored the winning goal in a game against Liverpool at home, it was a brilliant individual goal. But I am so, so pleased for him because he has travelled the world to be the best player that he can be and I am so happy he has flourished his talents on such a big occasion.”

Interestingly, Rodgers actually tried to sign Lookman for Celtic before making the move to Leicester and managing to snap him up on loan. "I was so, so happy for him watching the game last night,” added the Hoops boss. “I go back to my first night here at Celtic, I met Ade when he knew he was going to leave Charlton.

"We had looked to get him up here at the time but it was so early in the window that by the time the window finished, we couldn't afford him. The money was too much and he ended up going to Everton. We always kept in contact so when I was at Leicester and he was at Red Bull [Leipzig], we had the chance to take him on loan.

"So I took him in and he was absolutely brilliant. What a professional he is, the way he looks after himself, the extra work he does in training. Those goals that he scored, he practices those after training, he would always do extra training. His professionalism was unbelievable."