Atlético Madrid announced on 2 February 2026 that Ademola Lookman had signed from Atalanta on a contract to 30 June 2030. Goal Italy put the fee at €35 million plus up to €5 million in add-ons. Wages? Nothing.
Silence is the problem. It explains why searches for lookman salary return figures that differ by more than a factor of two, from outlet to outlet and week to week.
| At a glance | Detail |
|---|---|
| Club | Atlético Madrid, from Atalanta, 2 February 2026 |
| Contract end | 30 June 2030 (club statement, via Goal Italy) |
| Fee | €35m plus up to €5m add-ons |
| Reported wage | €6m to €12.5m a year gross, by outlet |
| Net worth | No reliable published figure |
| Honours | CAF Men's Player of the Year 2024; 14th in the 2024 Ballon d'Or |
What the club has and has not said
Atlético publish no wage bill by player, and in its report of 2 February Goal Italy said Lookman's salary was not disclosed, adding that Fenerbahce had offered a higher wage without giving a figure for either club.
So everything below is press reporting.
Four salary figures, one wide gap
The lowest numbers came first, and they came fast. Football Italia, relaying La Repubblica on 1 February, put his pay at €7 million a season over four years. Bolavip, citing Mundo Deportivo, said on 3 February that he would earn €6 million a year, or €500,000 a month, and El Plural repeated €6 million gross on 4 February without naming any source at all for it.
The higher numbers sit at the other end of the scale. The tracker Salaryleaks lists €12.5 million base with up to €2 million in bonuses. It credits the journalist Nicolo Schira on 2 February, but its own verification column is blank. Afrik-Foot, on 19 August, carried Capology's 2026-27 estimates: €12.5 million fixed and possible bonuses of €3.13 million.
On that table he is joint second. Julián Ãlvarez and Cristian Romero match him, and only Jan Oblak, at €20.83 million, earns more.
Capology models its numbers, so that is an estimate and not a leak. A model. The €6 million and €7 million reports came from newspapers in the first days of the move, when details were still emerging, and two of them do not say where the figure came from. We would not pick one.
Hold the range.
Naira first. The CBN's NFEM closing rate on 29 October 2026 was ₦1,500.34 to the euro and ₦1,346.91 to the dollar, according to Legit.ng on 30 October. At that rate, €6 million is about ₦9.0 billion a year, €7 million about ₦10.5 billion and €12.5 million about ₦18.75 billion. All are gross. Spanish tax and agents come out of that.
Net worth: the number we will not print
None. No one reliable has published one. One 2026 Nigerian profile offers $10 million to $15 million, but names no method or source, and its salary line is unsourced too. Wealth depends on tax bills, property, image deals and savings that no outlet has seen, and a salary estimate, however carefully built, cannot stand in for any of them.
On his private life we say only what Lookman has made public: he was born in Wandsworth, London, to Nigerian parents.
Form, the Ballon d'Or and the Eagles
His standing rests on 2024. He finished 14th in the Ballon d'Or on 28 October, then was named CAF Men's Player of the Year in Marrakech on 16 December, the seventh Nigerian winner and the second in a row after Victor Osimhen. “The difficult moments have given me that extra strength,” he told CAF. Our five reasons Lookman should win made the case before the vote.
Madrid has been slower. Not a collapse, but slower. Soccernet.ng counted one goal in seven appearances by 1 October. Then came Manchester United. He scored in the 2-0 Champions League win on 13 October, a 79th-minute rebound, according to Vanguard.
A week later he came on at half-time at Stuttgart and set up Ãlvarez's equaliser in a 1-1 draw. Naijanews, citing Transfermarkt, called it his 50th senior club assist. “He is deadly in the box. So, yeah, I knew he would score,” he said, as The Sun Nigeria reported. Our report on the Stuttgart assist has more.
On 29 October the Spanish site Fichajes wrote that Atlético would hear offers above €40 million and that Juventus were watching. It named no source, and neither club has commented.
Treat it as talk.
For Nigeria, the picture is mixed, and it starts with a miss. Nigeria will not be in North America. The Super Eagles missed the 2026 World Cup after losing the CAF play-off final to DR Congo. In the 2027 AFCON qualifiers Lookman started the 2-1 win over Madagascar in Uyo on 25 September. He also started the 3-0 defeat at Guinea-Bissau four days later. Eric Chelle then left him out of the 6 October friendly against Russia, a decision Pulse Sports described as a rest for his heavily overworked stars, with Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar still chasing the one remaining place.
Our view
Goals justify wages. Whether it is €6 million or €12.5 million, he is paid as a first-choice attacker at a club that also has Ãlvarez, Jonathan David and Alexander Sørloth.
For fans at home, our guide to the highest-paid players in the Nigerian league shows how far the scale sits from Madrid. Our Lookman biography covers the years before Atlético.
Simple as that. Until Atlético, Lookman or his representatives publish a figure, the honest answer on salary is a range, and on net worth it is that nobody knows.
This article was most recently revised and updated 9 seconds ago
