Atalanta CEO, Percassi: ‘Lookman will only leave on our terms’

Atalanta CEO Luca Percassi says the club will determine the fate of Super Eagles of Nigeria forward, Ademola Lookman.

Percassi revealed the intention of the club was to keep all the players that helped the Bergamo side to an incredible Europa League triump over Bayer Leverkusen of Germany last season, including Lookman, the hat-trick hero.

‘We are calm. For the first time in our history, the idea was not to let anyone leave, we had the desire to keep all our star players who were protagonists of an extraordinary season with us,’ said Percassi and insists the club will determine what is best for it.

‘All players are Atalanta players and will only leave on our terms,’ he said unequivocally.

Atalanta coach, Gian Piero Gasperini also expressed surprise at the behavior of the players who want to exit the club, especially Loookman and Teun Koopmeiners.

“I owe a lot to Koopmeiners and Lookman, they had a very sincere relationship with me. I’m sorry for the situation at a time when the championship has begun.

‘The negative thing is that these situations arise with the current championship. No one likes these situations. In July they would not have created these types of problems. Football is a sport of entertainment and spectacle and we have to do it for the people.

‘This is madness of those who still allow these situations, otherwise they would have been resolved and the teams were all defined before the championship. In that case we could have shown up at the start of the season with the fans who know what team they are going to see.

‘It’s really something strange,’ he said after leading his side to a 4-0 win at Leece in their opening game of the Serie A season.