Ademola Lookman earns just the 18TH perfect 10/10 from L'Equipe for his 'magnificent' Europa League final hat-trick - as he joins Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland in the pantheon of football greats

Ademola Lookman scored a hat-trick to end Atalanta's 61-year wait for silverwareLookman's boyhood coach revealed the encouraging text he sent the player IAN LADYMAN: Arsenal will win the Premier League next season - Listen to the It's All Kicking Off! podcast

Ademola Lookman's heroics on Wednesday night have earned him the highly-coveted perfect 10/10 rating from L'Equipe after his stunning performance.

The Nigeria international netted all three goals in Atalanta's stunning 3-0 dismantling of Bayer Leverkusen, with the Bundesliga champions bidding to go unbeaten in all three competitions this season.

Having swept aside all in the Bundesliga and remained invincible, the Europa League proved a step too far, with Lookman leading the charge as Atalanta dashed Xabi Alonso's side's hopes.

The German outfit still have the opportunity to remain unbeaten in Germany with the DFB Pokal final next weekend, but Lookman's perfect night will plague their nightmares for the coming weeks.

His first came from inside the box, beating a defender to latch onto the end of a ball back across goal and fire the Italian's 1-0 up, before a second that was placed to perfection from the edge of the box.

Ademola Lookman scored all three goals as Atalanta beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in the Europa League final

His heroic showing earned him a rare perfect 10/10 score from L'Equipe joining an exclusive club

His third saw the forward find the top-right corner of the goal from the left-hand side of the box emphatically, rounding off a sublime evening for the English-born Nigerian star.

'The Nigerian scored three magnificent goals,' wrote L'Equipe in their rare glowing assessment of the player.

'The first as a center forward, overtaking Palacios and putting the right foot area under the bar of Kovar's goal (12th). The second is a technical feat, a small bridge-rolling strike sequence, in the middle of several German players (26th). And the third is a masterpiece (75th).

'It's the perfect match. He scored three goals almost single-handedly in a European Cup final against a team that was the opposition's favorite. It ticks all the boxes of the 10.'

Lookman joins a very short list of lucky players to have been given the honour of a perfect score, and is the first since Erling Haaland, who picked up a 10/10 after putting five past RB Leipzig in the Champions League last term.

The Norwegian is in fact one of only two to have received more than one perfect score, although both of his came in the same season.

Lionel Messi has of course also earned the honour twice, both of those coming for Barcelona (against Leverkusen in 2010 and Arsenal in 2012), while Cristiano Ronaldo has never achieved the feat.

It was a poor night in the office for Leverkusen's normally stellar side that have overcome everything in their path this season, with eight names picking up the worst possible ranking of 5/5 from Bild.

Xabi Alonso, Granit Xhaka, Victor Boniface and Florian Wirtz have been crucial to their sensational campaign, but all came up flat on Wednesday.

Lookman was mobbed by his Atalanta team-mates after securing the club's first European trophy

Erling Haaland scored five goals for Manchester City in their 7-0 win over RB Leipzig

Haaland and Lionel Messi are the only players to achieve the 10/10 rating by L'Equipe twice during their careers

Peter Crouch led the praise for the young forward on a memorable evening, telling TNT Sport: 'This is why you play football. Someone like Lookman who has been around, a footballing nomad at times, someone who's been Sunday league, to Charlton to Fulham on loan, Leicester, RB Leipzig, he's gone around the houses to get to the moment where he's found a home today and scored a hat-trick in a European cup final.

'It's an amazing story and those fans will never forget the name Ademola Lookman, it's absolutely sensational.'

Lookman himself was beaming in the aftermath of his historic achievement, and said: 'It's one of the best nights of my life.

'It was an amazing performance from the team. We did it... We made history tonight.'