Celtic interest in Belgian winger confirmed by club chief

Celtic made additions in a number of positions across the pitch in the summer. One area where they did not end up strengthening though is on the wings. That does not mean that they were not linked with players. And with Luis Palma's future at Parkhead up in the air, they might need to revisit the position if the Honduran international did end up leaving.

One of the players to have been linked with Celtic in the summer was Belgian winger, Michel Ange-Balikwisha. He currently plays for Royal Antwerp and has also represented Belgium at a number of youth international levels.

Of course, there are all sorts of rumours doing the rounds during summer transfer windows. So, it is hard to figure out which ones are based in reality.

When it comes to Balikwisha, it looks like there was indeed interest on the part of Celtic though. As reported by the Daily Record, Royal Antwerp chief Sven Jaecques told Gazet van Antwerpen:

"Well, Balikwisha was down with an injury, so we knew it was going to be difficult.

"Two clubs [Celtic and Rennes] kept negotiating to possibly still bring him in, but in the meantime, we know that such clubs will rather focus on January anyway. He must now return as soon and fit as possible and then we will see what happens."

Celtic interest in Belgian winger confirmed by club chief

So, it looks like Celtic and Rennes were interested in signing Balikwisha over the summer. The French club have seemingly filled their need on the wing since then.

Incidentally, Rennes ended up signing Jota from Al-Ittihad, just a year after his Scottish-record move from Celtic. It would be safe to say that Hoops fans would have been open to the idea of a reunion but it was not to be.

Coming back to Balikwisha, he has been dealing with an injury at the start of this campaign. But he was fantastic last time around. According to stats from Transfermarkt, he scored 10 goals and provided 8 assists in 44 appearances in the 23/24 season for Royal Antwerp.

If Celtic ended up signing Balikwisha as Palma's potential replacement, the Belgian would have to compete with Daizen Maeda for a spot in the starting XI. Not the easiest task.