Celtic wanted to add Levante UD’s Giorgi Kochorashvili to Brendan Rodgers’ squad next season. The Scottish Premiership side made a concrete attempt to sign the 25-year-old but lost the battle to Sporting.
On Tuesday, Levante confirmed an agreement has been reached with Sporting for the Celtic target to join them next season.
Super Deporte provide a background on how the Lions acted to secure an agreement for the midfielder.
Sporting were keen on signing Andrés García in the winter market and were disappointed when Levante sold him to Aston Villa. In order to not miss out on Kochorashvili, they had a preference to sign him in the summer window.
Levante secured a clause in the pre-agreement with Sporting which means the latter will have to pay a fee if another club were to make an offer in the second half of this season. This had to be activated when Celtic made a ‘formal offer over the weekend’.
Last week, Levante CEO José Danvila stated the Georgia international was not for sale. The report states this, coupled with Celtic’s formal proposal, ‘precipitated’ an operation that Sporting closed on Monday.
Super Deporte have been told by other sources that Sporting had secured an agreement with Levante for Kochorashvili in January.
The Lions kept it under wraps until they were obliged to report their quarterly accounts to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission.
Either way, Celtic made a formal offer and lost the player to Sporting. Levante will receive €5.5m plus €2m bonuses and 12.5% from a future sale.
