Celtic may be forced to make a decision on Marcelo Saracchi’s future sooner rather than later.
Saracchi has impressed since joining on loan from Boca Juniors but has been sidelined for the last month due to injury.
He never made an appearance throughout Wilfried Nancy’s eight games in charge, but the left-back was one of the stars under Martin O’Neill.
No decision has been made on his future so far, but a situation at Boca may accelerate that.
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Boca Juniors face registration issue
According to La Nacion, Saracchi is currently occupying one of the six foreign player slots in Boca’s current squad.
They are in the process of a huge rebuild and in order for a player to be relieved of one of those, the Argentine Football Association states: “for a player to cease occupying a foreign player slot, they must be transferred or loaned to a foreign club.”
La Nacion incorrectly states that the left-back was left out by Nancy, failing to state that he was injured, but as the domestic season in Argentina runs at a different time to the Scottish calendar.
This is because the “minimum term for signing new contracts cannot be less than one year, which would create an overlap starting 1 July”.
The 27-year-old therefore would have to be contractually registered and take up a slot that could be used to sign someone that they will use in the squad.
Marcelo Saracchi would be a smart permanent signing for Celtic
Little was expected of ‘Chelo’ when he signed on loan, but he has pleasantly surprised everyone.
Since signing, the full-back has made 11 appearances and his form even saw Saracchi recalled to Uruguay’s national team.
He is also a competitive option alongside Kieran Tierney and there is very little to separate the two in terms of quality based off this season.
For a potentially cheap deal, it wouldn’t be the worst idea by any stretch of the imagination.
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