Celtic have been linked with a centre-back for the first time in this transfer window.
Excluding the recalling of Stephen Welsh from Motherwell, Aurele Amenda is the first Celtic-linked central defender this winter.
The Swiss defender plays for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, but is keen to leave on loan to boost his chances in his country’s World Cup squad.
Mainz, Lorient, Torino, Nice and Valencia are all also in the race, according to reports – so don’t hold your breath just yet.
But as a 6 ft 6 defender who moved to Germany for £9 million last year, he is certainly an interesting option.
How much of a priority is a defensive midfielder for Celtic in January?
Celtic target Aurele Amenda’s impressive Bundesliga stat
As a right-sided defender, he would offer some much-needed balance to a backline which is currently being held together by Liam Scales and Auston Trusty.
His title-winning and European experience is handy, despite his tender age of 22.
READ MORE: Hayato Inamura says Celtic freeze-out left him ’embarrassed’ in damning reflection
A strength of Celtic’s during the interim spell of Martin O’Neill has been penalty box defending, and logic says that adding a 6 ft 6 defender to that defence could only be a good thing.
The stats from Germany back this up too.
According to FBref, of all players in the German top-flight, Amenda’s percentage of aerial duels won is the fifth-highest.
Ahead of him are Dan-Axel Zagadou, Luka Vuskovic, Kim Min-Jae and… former Celtic defender Moritz Jenz.
Jenz now plays for Wolfsburg, and scored an own-goal in an 8-1 defeat to Bayern Munich last week. They paid £7 million to take him from Lorient, months after the early termination of his loan in Glasgow.
But it’s yet to be seen if Amenda can follow in his footsteps by heading on loan to Glasgow. If he does you’d expect to see Welsh head back to Motherwell.
6 ft 6 international defender with European experience.. does Aurele Amenda sound good to you?
Martin O’Neill on Celtic defender Stephen Welsh
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, the interim Hoops boss explained: “We’ll see, if you didn’t mind tonight, it’s not really heavily in my thoughts. He’s a really good lad. He trained with us the other day. We’ll see.
“We’ll have a little look at that situation. I didn’t realise this at the time. Obviously, I’m not favoured with all of the rules, quite a few have been made up since I was last managing.
“But we had to recall otherwise, if it went past a certain date, then you couldn’t do that. Stephen has had a really great time at Motherwell.
“He’s enjoying himself immensely. And yeah, and if he ends up staying with us, then battle on to try and get into the side.”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
