Celtic striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo to pay his own flight fare for Ivory Coast clash

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Celtic striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo has had to pay his own fare to fly to play for the Ivory Coast under-23s.

Bayo’s nation have a huge Olympic qualifier against Niger on Friday. Yet, due to the fact that the nation is in a financial crisis at the moment, he’s had to dig into his own pockets.

The match will still apparently go ahead on Friday as planned. It doesn’t appear, according to the Daily Record, that all Ivory Coast players have had to pay their own way.

Bayo will need to take a flight from Glasgow to Abidjan, where the match will take place on Friday. The Ivory Coast will face Niger again three days after their first meeting in another qualifying clash.

Bayo will be looking to shoot his nation to some success at international level. Fortunately for him, the Ivorian Football Federation has confirmed he will be reimbursed.

A chance for Bayo to stand out

The big striker should look at this double-header as a real chance to stand out. So far under Neil Lennon, he’s only made one squad appearance. That came in Sunday’s 1-0 win at Dundee, where he failed to come on despite the Hoops chasing a goal.

He’s currently battling the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Oliver Burke, and Timothy Weah up top. And in the race for that number nine jersey, Bayo is currently last in line out of the quartet.

Even under Brendan Rodgers, Bayo only made one appearance, and it was for a couple of minutes late on at Rugby Park when things were getting desperate.

The towering striker was in fine form for Dunajska Streda before signing at Parkhead for £2million last January. But it looks as though we’ll be seeing the best of him next season.

In order for him to prove to Lennon that he deserves a shot before the end of the campaign, he could do with being a standout on Friday night to begin with.

For supporters, it would be nice for us to see a bit more of what Bayo has to offer before the end of the season. At the minute, it’s looking as if the only way that’s going to happen is if Celtic win the league with several games to spare. That does, at the moment, look extremely likely.

Bayo’s journey to the Ivory Coast may have impacted his bank balance ever so slightly, but it’ll all be worth it if he rattles home some goals and sends out a message to Lennon and Celtic.