Celtic youth star Karamoko Dembele has reportedly pledged his allegiance to England, hanging Scotland out to dry.
The 16-year-old, who has made one competitive Celtic appearance, has made his big international choice according to the Scottish Sun. They say that the attacker will now turn out for England’s youth sides and not for Scotland at any stage.
Dembele featured, and scored, for the England under-17s during the international break but he has also turned out for Scotland’s equivalent over the past few years.
He will still be able to switch allegiance to the Scotland national team until the moment when he makes a competitive appearance for the full England side.
Dembele will be playing with better players with England
Of course it’s very difficult to predict just how good Dembele will be in the end up, but his current potential suggests he could make it right to the top of the game. England have a lot of top attacking talent, and will do so in the coming years, but Dembele looks like he has the ability to play at that level.
Scottish figures will just hope that his game time becomes limited and he chooses to revert back to the country where he lives and works.
From a Celtic point of view it makes little difference. In fact you could perhaps argue that playing in the English youth setup will help improve him as a player more. He’ll be playing with more talented players than he would be in Scotland and that can only help his development.
But with the talent he undoubtedly possesses, the question already seems to be: how long can we hold on to him for?
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