Ademola Lookman walks into the Estadio de la Cartuja in Seville today with a chance to win his first major title at Atletico Madrid, facing Real Sociedad in the 2026 Copa del Rey final after a scintillating run to the showpiece.
Six goals, four assists, and a Copa del Rey final in just 17 appearances. That is Ademola Lookman‘s record since arriving at Atletico Madrid from Atalanta in January. The 28-year-old Super Eagles forward has settled into Diego Simeone‘s system with a speed and impact that even optimistic Atletico fans could not have predicted.
He scored on debut against Real Betis in a 5-0 demolition, then got on the scoresheet again as Atletico thrashed Barcelona 4-0 at the Metropolitano. In the Copa del Rey specifically, he has contributed two goals and two assists in just three appearances, numbers that mark him out as one of the competition’s outstanding performers this season.
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What a Title Would Mean
Atletico have won the Copa del Rey ten times, but their last triumph was in the 2012-13 season, meaning this is also a trophy the club has been waiting over a decade to reclaim. For Lookman, who arrived mid-season from Serie A, lifting silverware in his debut campaign would be the kind of statement arrival that few players manage.
Real Sociedad come into the final as three-time winners of the competition, hungry to add a fourth. The Basque club finished the league season respectably and will see this final as their best chance of ending the campaign with a trophy. Atletico cannot afford to take them lightly, even with the quality they possess.
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Lookman’s Bigger Picture
This is not just about one cup final. Lookman’s performance level since joining Atletico has re-entered him firmly into the conversation around the Super Eagles’ World Cup preparations. Nigeria face their remaining 2026 World Cup qualifying matches with a squad that needs its best players firing, and a player who just won the Copa del Rey with one of Europe’s biggest clubs is walking in with confidence that money cannot buy.
He left Atalanta as one of Serie A’s most creative forwards. He arrives in Madrid’s big finals as a ready-made match-winner. The question Simeone will have answered before kick-off is whether to build around that or leave him to find his own moments, as he has done so naturally since January.
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Can He Become the First Nigerian to Win It?
No Nigerian player has ever won the Copa del Rey. If Lookman lifts that trophy at the Estadio de la Cartuja tonight, he writes himself into Nigerian football history. That alone should be enough motivation, not that a player of his quality has ever needed extra fuel.
FootballInNigeria.com.ng will have full coverage of the final and every Lookman development as it happens. Kick-off in Seville is this Saturday evening, and a nation of Super Eagles fans will be watching.
📌 Did You Know?
- Ademola Lookman was born in Wandsworth, London to Nigerian parents, and represented England at youth level before switching international allegiance to Nigeria in 2022, making his senior debut under Jose Peseiro.
- Lookman scored a hat-trick for Atalanta in the 2024 UEFA Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen in Dublin, becoming only the second player in history to score three goals in a European final at that stage of the competition.
- The Estadio de la Cartuja in Seville has a capacity of approximately 60,000 and has hosted multiple Copa del Rey finals, as well as serving as a neutral venue for Euro 2020 matches played during the COVID-delayed tournament.
- Diego Simeone has won the Copa del Rey only once as Atletico Madrid manager, in 2013, despite his 14-plus years in charge at the club and several La Liga and Champions League campaigns.
- Real Sociedad are based in San Sebastian in the Basque Country and last won the Copa del Rey in 2020, when they beat Athletic Club in a final that was delayed from its original 2020 date to April 2021 due to the pandemic.
- Atletico Madrid’s record Copa del Rey goal scorer is Luis Aragones, the legendary manager and former player who scored 123 goals for the club during his playing career in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Since Nigeria began qualifying regularly for the World Cup in 1994, no Nigerian player has ever won a major European domestic cup competition in the same season they featured in World Cup qualifying, making Lookman’s 2026 run genuinely unprecedented in scope.
