Alexandro Bernabei is in Glasgow and will formally become a Celtic player today after signing his five contract. He’ll be unveiled formally, will have his Welcome to Celtic interview with Celtic TV, there will be a mainstream media conference and a separate Celtic Fan Media conference.
The Under 19s Argentinian international wing-back will become a Celtic player after the club agreed a fee of £3.75m plus a 10% sell-on clause with Lanus and the 21 year-old wasted no time in travelling to Glasgow via a flight to Amsterdam from Argentina.
Alexandro Bernabei of Lanus celebrates after scoring. (Photo by Agustín Marcarian – Pool/Getty Images)
With the Celtic players who have not been involved in international football since the end of the domestic season due back at Lennoxtown on Monday morning, if the intention from the manager Ange Postecoglou is to have as many of his squad together as possible from the word go, then there is little room for Celtic’s PR team to stagger signings to give each one their day in the limelight.
Today the spotlight may have to be shared. Last seen in Lisbon, our globe-Jota superstar from Portugal Phileas Fogg is due to arrive in Paradise today and the much anticipated deal with Benfica to make last year’s loan signing a permanent Celtic player should also be formalised.
Celtic will pay Benfica £6.4m for the player with a sizeable percentage of any profit on a future sale of between 25-30% being included in the deal for the fans favourite who scored ten goals last season, provided 10 assists and wore his Celtic top with pride this summer during his travels which had to come to an end today as the 23 year-old has formalities to complete at Celtic Park which will allow him to walk into Lennoxtown on Monday morning as a fully registered Celtic player.
Will we see another one today? If Ange wants his new players in for the resumption of play then we only have to look back to Hogmanay when he had no difficulty bringing in three signing on the same day with Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi all being announced as incoming Celtic players ahead of the window opening at midnight.
The player Ange really wants is Vinicius Souza, who has been in Manchester this week at City’s training camp. As a wildcard third signing he’d make perfect sense if we join the dots together but we’ll have to see just how Good a Friday it’s going to be. It might even end up being FANTASTIC!
Fasten your seatbelts…
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