Celtic have a star in their academy, Zion Pullan, who has received his first international call-up for Spain at the under-15 level. He has been receiving a lot of praise from around the footballing world for his incredible performances this season, which have seen him get 93 goal involvements.
At the age of just 15, he is a player who is already showing his quality. He can play out wide or through the middle, and will hopefully be an attacker that Celtic can keep on their books. Too often, the club loses young talent like him to teams down south for minimal fees. They can become worldbeaters, and the Hoops miss out.
Celtic U15 winger Zion Pullan has just received his first international call-up for Spain - he currently has 93 G/A this season.🤯🇪🇸
— The Talent Hunter 🎯 (@TalentHunter) May 5, 2026
Zion has been playing for Celtic’s U15 and U17 age groups this season, and has also represented Scotland at U15 level.🏴
The young winger has… pic.twitter.com/sHxPw1DRfH
He has been trusted to take the step up to Celtic's under-17s at times this year, showing how quickly his development is progressing. Of course, there are likely a few more years to go until we see him anywhere near the senior team, but it's good to know that we have someone like this coming through the ranks.
In recent years, Celtic have lost out on young talent like Ben Gannon-Doak and, most recently, Dara Jikiemi. The former left for Liverpool in 2022, with the Reds giving us £600,000 in compensation, and Jikiemi also departed for Anfield earlier this year. They are both just two names on a long list of players who have crossed the border to play their football, and it has been worrying some fans.
Do Celtic have a problem in the academy?
The number of players who have moved away indicates that Celtic may have a problem with the player pathway. There are very few examples of players choosing to play their football at Parkhead after breaking through, and it's down to a few factors.
One is that the gametime just isn't there. In 2024, Daniel Kelly was starting to get more gametime, but he was quickly phased out by Brendan Rodgers, and a move quickly followed. He made the move to Millwall for £400,000 plus add-ons despite impressing when he came on for Celtic, and it makes supporters question if anything will change anytime soon.
To be honest, it doesn't look likely. Fingers are crossed that one day, Pullan will feature for the first team, but it is still up in the air whether he will come close to that. Some fans are already joking on social media that an academy fee will be inbound from a European giant, and sadly, it may not be far from the truth.
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