With it no longer being a secret due to the Italian media sticking their nose into what goes on behind the scenes at clubs, Kristoffer Ajer was wanted by Milan over the past transfer window.
The Serie A side were looking at the Celtic defender in order to bolster their squad ahead of a long season, but the asking price by those in charge of such moves at Parkhead put them off.
He stayed with the Scottish Premiership champions for the current campaign, and is highly likely to remain there until next summer at the very least.
Ajer arrived from Start in 2016 and spent some time out on loan at Kilmarnock before fully integrating Celtic’s squad, but his story could have been very different had an unsuccessful trial in 2014 panned out instead.
Federico Coppitelli, the coach of the Serie A side’s U17s at the time said: “I remember it well. Lodovico Spinosi had pointed this out. Ajer was tall, powerful, with improved coordination. He trained with us for two days, then played a game, once with my team and the other with the Primavera. I don’t know how things went after that.”
The defender has since development into a very strong, versatile defender, and there might be some at Roma who are kicking themselves at the fact he could have joined their ranks early on.
Either way, Celtic are the beneficiaries of that, and will likely be once more when they decide it’s time to part ways with their player as he seeks greener pastures down the line.
