Eintracht Frankfurt defender Aurele Amenda is the latest man to be linked with Celtic in January.
Martin O’Neill’s men are reportedly one of several clubs in the race for the Swiss international, who wants to leave the Bundesliga side.
Amenda has made eight league appearances this season, but just three of those have been starts. He is keen to make the Swiss squad for this summer’s World Cup.
According to reports in Europe via The Herald, Mainz, Lorient, Torino, Nice and Valencia are all also in the race for the 6 ft 6 defender.
That’s some pretty stiff competition for a club in Scotland.
6 ft 6 international defender with European experience.. does Aurele Amenda sound good to you?
Celtic linked with Aurele Amenda of Eintracht Frankfurt
This time two years ago, Frankfurt paid £8 million to take Amenda from BSC Young Boys in his homeland.
The 22-year-old centre-back has, however, been unable to displace German internationals Robin Koch and Nnamdi Collins in Dino Toppmoller’s backline.
READ MORE: Benjamin Nygren admits Celtic ‘need’ January signings, praises teammates’ professionalism
He is now reportedly after a move for a last-minute bid in Murat Yakin’s squad in North America.
Amenda has been featuring in squads, but hasn’t kicked a ball for his country since a friendly against the United States in June.
He has featured in the Champions League this season, playing 90 minutes in Frankfurt’s 5-1 home defeat to Liverpool on matchday three.
He is the first central defender to be credibly linked with Celtic in January – though multiple reports have confirmed that this is an area in which they’d like to strengthen.
Of course, Celtic recalled Stephen Welsh from Motherwell at the beginning of the week, with the defender excelling under Jens Askou this season.
O’Neill has opened the door for Welsh to head Fir Park, however, clarifying the situation.
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.”
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