Brendan Rodgers has made his affinity for players on the continent of Africa well known. That much became clear in his comments following the recent signing of Kouassi Eboue.
However, don’t expect Celtic to be putting all their eggs in one basket when it comes to an apparent youth movement within the club. In fact, Celtic, as a club, appear to have eggs in many baskets when it comes to its youth set up.
Not only is the youth setup internally becoming stronger, but the branches of Celtic’s youth scouting continue to grow.
One branch appears to be the land of Kangaroos and Footie (the Australian version), as Celtic are setting up an academy in March in Australia. With Tom Rogic emerging as a quality player, it appears the Bhoys are looking to mine talent in the land down under in a big way.
According to a report in the Daily Record, Celtic will hold an academy in March with one of the players at the academy being invited to trial with the club back in Scotland.
No doubt it is a huge opportunity for said player, but it could also be key to finding a way to not have to spend a ton of money on buying players in the future. If Celtic can find some talent by scouting it in person at a young age in a different part of the world that would be huge.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed, and the player could fail upon a move to Parkhead, but this is the kind of thing Celtic need to attempt. They don’t have the millions to scout and bring in talent at the youth level like Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City have done down south.
What the club does have is a large international following, and capitalizing on the following by extending its youth academy situation around the globe is just smart business. Spending the money to cultivate more “home-grown” talent than having to over-extend on transfer fees is certainly advantageous.
This particular academy will be held in Ballarat, Victoria and will apparently include all ages within in the soccer school per the Daily Record reporting.
"“Celtic are coming here to pass their knowledge onto our local talent and up and coming talent and we’re not just working with certain age groups, we’re working with the whole football community. If this all works well it could become a really good partnership for Ballarat and football and Celtic.”"
Australia may seem a curious choice to some, but it isn’t an over-exposed footballing nation. In fact, it may be just on the upswing. The current national team roster shows that the level of football is getting better for the Socceroos. All but three players ply their trade outside the A-Leauge and most of those playing abroad are doing so in England or Germany.
Tapping in to that kind of potential with the next crop of Australian players certainly is a bold move. It also will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Next: O'Connell Gets Start in 1st Match With Walsall
At least Celtic are willing to extend themselves in the hopes of finding the next great player to import within its system. It’s just another example of this club leading the way in Scottish football.