Celtic completed a move for Alexandro Bernabei recently, with the 21-year-old joining from Lanus. In the process of doing so, he became the first Argentine player in the history of the club, which is very surprising. Hopefully, he will prove to be very successful at Parkhead and open the floodgates. The Hoops are believed to have shelled out a transfer fee around £3.75 million to sign him.
Bernabei is expected to be competing with Greg Taylor for the left-back spot at Celtic. That has been viewed as a position of worry for the club for a long time, ever since Kieran Tierney left in the summer of 2019 to join Arsenal in a Scottish record move.
Argentine players have a long history of succeeding in Europe and one of the biggest talents that the country ever produced was Diego Maradona, one of the greatest in the history of football.
As reported by Glasgow World, Bernabei said:
"“First of all, Diego was a World Champion and I had a chance to meet him when there was a friendly between Lanus and Gimnasia.“For me it was just really, really meaningful to be able to meet him. For my career and also for my life, for all Argentinians. I don’t think I’m at the stature of the best, like Messi and Maradona. I wouldn’t make that comparison.“However, I would really like to follow in their footsteps in terms of playing in Europe for as long as I can. It was a dream of mine to come and play in Europe.“Being the first Argentinian player at Celtic means I would like to open the door for a lot more Argentinian players to come to the club. My family and my friends will all know about Celtic.”"
Bernabei makes Maradona claim after joining Celtic
Bernabei has all the attributes needed to be a success in Ange Postecoglou’s system of football. He has rapid pace, dribbling ability, quality in the final third of the pitch, an eye for a goal as well as aggressiveness and tenacity off the ball.
It remains to be seen if he can establish himself as a regular starter at Celtic. He has plenty of experience from his time at Lanus and has represented Argentina at the youth level as well, but at the same time, there is a lot of risk involved in the move as well.
At the end of the day, Bernabei has never played in Europe before and it will be very interesting to see how he is able to make that adjustment at Celtic. Let’s just hope that like Maradona, he is able to enjoy a long and successful career in European club football.