Over time, Celtic have had one of the best academies in all of Europe. But they have had a tough time bringing through youngsters into the first-team in recent years.
And we have also seen a number of these promising youngsters leave for clubs like Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Liverpool in the recent past. Thus, it is only natural that the club would want to improve in this area and help these talents successfully make the jump from the youth sides to the first-team.
One player who has managed to create quite a buzz over the last few weeks is Leo Hjelde. The 17-year-old is currently on loan at Ross County. And he has managed to impress manager John Hughes to the point where he has predicted the youngster to become the next Virgil van Dijk.
As reported by BBC, the Ross County manager said:
"“Leo is going to be the next Van Dijk – trust me on that.“The quality he has shown, the physical challenge, playing real men’s football and standing up to it – it’s been a wonderful experience for Leo.“Before he came, Leeds United were after him. I think he had to sign an extension to his contract for the loan to go through.”"
McLeish believes Leeds United could return for the Celtic youngster
One interesting thing that comes up here is that Leeds United wanted the youngster. So could they try to make a move for him in the future? Alex McLeish appears to believe so.
As reported by Football Insider, when asked if he thought Leeds United could return for the youngster, McLeish said:
"“Yeah, Leeds could. Scotland’s been a good hunting ground for a few of the big clubs.“Celtic have, over the years, done good business with players like van Dijk. He’s not the only one they’ve sold for a big fee at the end of his Celtic career.“If John’s young kid keeps progressing, his loanee, then there’s no doubting he can become another terrific foreign centre-half.“It seems to be, over the years, the top teams in Scotland have gone for foreign centre-halves.”"
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While we are yet to see too much of Hjelde in top flight football, the early signs do seem very promising. The youngster has already made 9 appearances for Ross County despite joining them in January and the fact that the manager decided to hail him as the ‘next Van Dijk’ just goes on to show the kind of potential he might have as a player.
At this stage of his career though, it is all about progressing and developing. And at Ross County, it looks like Hjelde has the perfect environment to do that before returning to Celtic at the end of the season.
Then, it will be interesting to see whether he is part of the club’s first-team picture. At this point of time, he is believed to have a contract with the Hoops till the summer of 2022.