Brøndby IF’s Mathias Kvistgaarden has been linked to Celtic in the last two windows, but Brendan Rodgers’ side weren’t able to secure his services.
At the start of this season, the forward admitted he was flattered by Celtic links last summer.
On December 20th, we covered claims from Denmark that Celtic had hardly cooled their interest in him. The Scottish champions were named as his suitor for the winter market. Two days later, the 22-year-old admitted he wants to find a new club this year.
Fast forward to February and a fresh report from Tipsbladet relay claims made elsewhere about the interest shown by Celtic and other clubs in January.
Earlier this week, Brøndby chairman Jan Bech Andersen revealed they received offers for the player but decided to retain him.
Benjamin Schmedes, the Danish club’s sporting director, has given an interview to Viaplay and was asked about the Celtic target.
Tipsbladet have relayed the German’s comments, and he insists it wasn’t hard for his side to persuade their key players to continue at Brøndby at least until the summer. Mathias Kvistgaarden is most likely to be one of them.
“I don’t officially comment on bids, but it’s no secret that we have some players who are exciting for bigger leagues and bigger clubs,” he said.
“Of course, there was some work for us to persuade a few to stay, but I think everyone, including the players, can be happy to be here, where we have a big spring season ahead of us.”
“It wasn’t hard to keep the squad together. Even those players who might want to go abroad at some point can see the opportunities here in the second half of the season.”
“I received a lot of phone calls in general, but of course also about several players. Other clubs called to get information about the state of things, that’s how it is. But we had no interest in selling any of our key players, so that’s why we stuck to the plan to keep them.”
Kvistgaarden has impressed for Brøndby this season, managing 14 goals and five assists from 22 games. It remains to seen whether the Scottish champions will try and sign him in the next window.
