RB Leipzig, or the German media covering the club, simply won’t give up on Ademola Lookman.
Cocky at the beginning of the summer, confidence slipped in Germany as time went on. Two offers, of €12m and €14m, were put in and refused, and RB Leipzig continued talking about it publicly.
In late July, Red Bull’s ‘Global Head of Soccer’ Oliver Mintzlaff was quoted as saying: “There may well be one or two engagements of players, Ademola Lookman remains high on our wish list.”
Around that time it was reported in Germany that Everton were asking for €20m, which didn’t seem unreasonable given how highly the Bundesliga club rated the player.
Then the price reportedly went up to €30m, and in early September German newspaper Bild slammed Everton as ‘greedy’ and said their demands were ‘outrageous’. It was even stated that had RB Leipzig paid the asking price then Lookman would have been ‘crushed from the beginning’ given the expectation.
It was all overly dramatic. Everton have a player they value, and RB Leipzig didn’t want to pay up, Bild don’t tend to get so irritated when it’s a Bundesliga club demanding big fees from England.
Anyway, there’s no way January was going to be allowed to approach without Lookman to Leipzig returning.
SportBild report this week that the player is ‘back in focus’, after a summer transfer failed because Everton demanded ‘well over €20m’.
Ding, ding, let round two commence.
