Odsonne Edouard left Celtic in 2021.
Brought on loan to Glasgow by Brendan Rodgers as a teenager in 2017, he grew to become one of the best Celtic strikers of a hugely successful era for the club.
Backup to Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths initially, his iconic winner at Ibrox changed everything. It didn’t just change his Celtic career, it changed away allocations in Glasgow Derbies forever.
He became Celtic’s record signing that summer, and played his best football in the 2019-20 season which was cut short due to Covid. Regardless, he won player of the year that campaign and left for Crystal Palace a year later.
He has endured a frustrating four years since leaving Glasgow – but now in Lens, his manager seems to be showing him the love he deserves
Lens boss Pierre Sage on Celtic hero Odsonne Edouard
When ‘French Eddy’ finally completed his move away from England, he made the move back to France to join Lens, who finished eighth in last season’s Ligue 1, and second in 2022-23.
After taking a few games to regain his sharpness, he’s back among the goals. He opened scoring in both of their last two matches, against Auxerre and Paris FC.
READ MORE: Chris Sutton answers Brendan Rodgers ‘entitlement’ question amid Celtic exit talk
As he looks to make it three in a row in this evening’s clash with Matt O’Riley’s Marseille, Lens manager Pierre Sage has been waxing lyrical about the 27-year-old.
Former Lyon boss Sage also admitted that he’s keeping former Rangers man Abdallah Sima out of the Lens side.
Speaking to La Voix du Nord, he said: “Believe me, you have not yet seen anything of Odsonne and what we see every day.
“He is an extraordinary striker. I am very proud that he is with us, very happy. And I can tell you: fasten your seatbelt, because he is a hell of a striker!
“He (Sima) deserves to have more playing time. As for Odsonne, we will see after the fifteen days of truce how he will be. But he was valuable in our game and his release also cost us a lot.”
Edouard was linked with a sensational return in the summer, but for now, that is sadly off the cards.
But with Rodgers in desperate need of some attacking reinforcements, they could do a lot worse than Edouard.
Where are other stars from Brendan Rodgers’ first spell now?
Dembele was probably the main poster boy of Rodgers’ first spell. He joined Lyon for £20 million in 2017, spending five years there (including six months at Atletico Madrid) before joining fellow ex-Celt Jack Hendry at Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia.
Kristoffer Ajer remains at Brentford, where he moved in 2021. He is a reliable squad player for Keith Andrews’ side and a starter for Norway. Stuart Armstrong is back in Scotland playing with Aberdeen.
Olivier Ntcham left Celtic under a cloud in 2021 and joined Russell Martin’s Swansea. He is now one of the key players at Samsunspor in Turkey.
Patrick Roberts has reunited with then-Hoops assistant Chris Davies at Birmingham, where Kyogo Furuhashi and Tomoki Iwata also play.
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