Fabio Sturgeon’s process of moving from Belenenses to Celtic seems to be developing pretty quickly. At least that’s according to the Portuguese media, who are largely ignoring Celtic denials, and are convinced Brendan Rodgers wants the player.
First, Celtic officials were spotted in Lisbon on Sunday. On Wednesday, Portuguese newspaper A Bola said Belenenses would demand at least €800k for the midfielder. And yesterday, a Celtic bid of this exact amount was reported.
The outlet claimed the only thing Belenenses had to sort before letting the player go was to find a replacement for him. And that’s pretty much what they’ve been doing, according to today’s edition of O Jogo.
The newspaper claims that the Portuguese side are trying to sign Joris Kayembe from Porto, who was already a target for the club and almost joined them in the summer. It’s likely the player will arrive on a loan deal until the end of the season.
If the transfer gets done, then the path is clear for Sturgeon to move to Celtic. The player told Belenenses he’s not renewing his contract so the club want to sell him.
Despite saying that Celtic are the ‘best placed club’ in the chase for the player, O Jogo are not 100% certain of the transfer yet.
Now, it could all be true, but it’s worth reading what we said a few days ago when covering Record’s original claims:
‘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.’
