Celtic have reportedly opened talks to bring the Belenenses midfielder Fabio Sturgeon to the club.
According to Portuguese newspaper Record, the 22-year-old is an old wish from manager Brendan Rodgers and could indeed be moving to Celtic Park.
They claim that Sturgeon will not renew his contract which runs until 2019, so this will be one of Belenenses’ last chances to make money by selling him.
Even though the player has a €7.5m release clause, the Portuguese club’s starting price to negotiate is just €800k.
Celtic have been sending scouts to Belenenses games for a few weeks now, and given Brendan Rodgers’ old interest to take Sturgeon to Liverpool, it was an obvious move.
With two goals and two assists this season, the winger has some importance at Belenenses. But the relationship between player and club hasn’t been good for a while, and that’s why a Celtic transfer is quite possible.
It must be noted that when A Bola originally reported Celtic scouting Belenenses, they didn’t mention any target. Reports in the Scottish media which said A Bola, or ‘the Portuguese media’, linked Sturgeon to Celtic earlier this week are wrong, they did not.
A couple of days ago we speculated that Sturgeon could be Celtic’s target, given that Rodgers has previously been linked, but made it very clear it was ‘could’ and not ‘is’.
It’s either coincidence that Record are now reporting Celtic opening talks, or they’ve been inspired by Scottish reports. The Portuguese press love a transfer rumour and are able to build quite convincing stories on very little, so the latter option is quite possible.
