Brendan Rodgers admits Celtic almost signed Atalanta superstar

Celtic have a lot of transfer miss stories. When it comes to Brendan Rodgers' first spell at Parkhead, the one that gets brought up most often is John McGinn. The Hoops let things drag on and that allowed Aston Villa to swoop in and get a deal done before them. Just look at the Scottish midfielder today and what he has gone on to achieve in the game. But there is another fantastic player that the Glasgow club missed out at around the same time.

Incidentally, they are set to come up against him this week in the Champions League. The player we are talking about is Ademola Lookman of Atalanta.

Lookman is the one to watch for for Celtic. He is Atalanta's best player and has already established himself as a club legend there after scoring a hattrick in their 3-0 win over undefeated Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Europa League final last season.

Rodgers has admitted that Celtic tried to sign Lookman back when he was at Charlton. The player was seemingly keen as well. But ultimately, the Hoops could not meet the transfer fee that was required.

Brendan Rodgers admits Celtic almost signed Atalanta superstar

As reported by the Daily Record, Rodgers said when talking about Celtic's attempts to sign Lookman in the past:

"How close was he to signing? Close in the fact that he was really excited by the project of Celtic. I met him in a hotel in London and we were looking to convince him to come. Sadly, we just couldn't get to the levels that Charlton wanted for him.

“But the club did everything they possibly could at that time. He was at Charlton at the time, he wanted to join a big club. He didn't feel those pressures and everything of why a player would want to come to Celtic.

“Charlton clearly were wanting to get as much as they possibly could for him. We spoke to him, from a personal perspective. It was a move that should have helped him and his representatives. He was very clear on that.

“But obviously it was a financial sum in the end. I think he went from maybe £11 million or something to Everton. It just drifted away from us. Financially it was a challenge on the fee. But wages and everything else the club could do. The player was keen in that moment. That's as close as it got.

“We’ve stayed in contact and he’s such a good guy, brilliant player. We wanted to sign him at Leicester at the time, with the chance to take him. But sadly we couldn't sign any players that summer. Lee Congestion (the former Celtic recruitment chief now in Italy) then took him here to Atalanta. He's now a club legend."

Of course, it was not a straight path to the top for Lookman after leaving Charlton. He joined Everton after that and it did not work out for him there.

He would leave the Merseyside club to join RB Leipzig, where it did not work out either. After a couple of loan spells at Fulham and Leicester City, he ended up at Atalanta, where everything has just fallen into place for him. Hopefully, he will not give Celtic a glimpse of the player he has become in midweek.