Israeli club confirm they’ve accepted Celtic transfer bid

Bnei Yehuda have confirmed they have agreed Celtic’s transfer bid for the Ivory Coast midfielder, who’ll be travelling to Glasgow soon.

There have been conflicting reports all over the media regarding Celtic’s deal with Bnei Yehuda for Ismaila Soro over the past few days. After the Israeli club’s manager had admitted that a deal had been reached between the two clubs, it had looked like that a transfer was inevitable.

Then reports from Sky Sports that Belgian champions Genk had entered the race for the Ivorian, threw the move into doubt. And then there was also the talk of player rights. Apparently, Soro’s agents own a part of his player rights and were due a part of the transfer fee which ended up stalling the transfer as the two parties could not reach an agreement. But now it looks like all hurdles have been cleared and the move is finally set to go through.

Israeli outlet  Sport1 have reported that a Bnei Yehuda spokesperson has confirmed that the transfer is ‘almost done’. Soro has been given permission to travel to Glasgow where he will be undergoing a medical at Parkhead before completing his transfer with the reigning Scottish champions.

The transfer saga for Soro has been going on for quite some time now. He has been linked with the club for months and it is good to see that the club have managed to sign a long-term target instead of making a panic buy.

Soro will bring something to the Celtic midfield that they have been missing this season: fight. The Ivorian is a delight to play with and a pest to play against. His style has been compared to that of N’Golo Kante because of his eye for cutting out opposition attacks. And Neil Lennon could certainly use him against sides like Steven Gerrard’s Rangers against whom the midfield was found wanting recently.

Of course, there is always the risk that Soro fails to adapt to Scottish football but at this point of time, his transfer looks like a masterstroke on Celtic’s part. Years down the line, his transfer fee could like an absolute bargain.