Argentinian outlet Blu Radio have said that Celtic ‘target’ Rafael Santos Borre is set to double his wages, if he agrees a new deal with River Plate.
The Argentinian giants could see Santos Borre leave on a free transfer, and clubs worldwide are keen. Celtic’s interest was reported by Football Insider, while Colombian outlet El Deportivo claim Rangers are interested, too. The Colombian international, according to Javier Hernández Bonnet [Blu Radio], is mulling over an offer from River Plate, having scored 56 total goals for Los Millionaros [Transfermarkt].
He’s featured twice so far in the Copa America. Celtic seem to be scouting the tournament, with Piero Hincapie of Ecuador also interesting the club’s recruitment staff.
Santos Borre has had an interesting career to date, to say the least. Rated at £15m by Transfermarkt, the Colombian has already played in Europe. Spells with Villarreal and Atletico Madrid didn’t quite go to plan. Los Rojiblancos lost £1m when they sold him to River Plate in 2017.
From Celtic’s perspective, they only really had an outside bet of landing the upcoming free agent. According to The Argus, the 25-year-old was linked with Brighton, despite having a deal “in place” with Brazilian side Gremio. In March, it looked like the MLS was Santos Borre’s next destination [AS].
Santos Borre: an ambitious target for Celtic, but you never quite know
To say Santos Borre would be an ambitious target, given the potential costs involved, is perhaps an understatement. His scoring pedigree in Argentina is well-established, after all. Fine, his sojourns to Europe didn’t work out quite as planned, but it’s a destination he wants to return to.
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Whether he’ll be up for swapping Buenos Aires for Glasgow is another thing. However, if he wants to compete for trophies, and play European football, he could do far worse. It certainly makes more sense for his ambitions than a move to Brazil or the MLS. Notably, neither Brazil nor America are in Europe.
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A serial winner with River Plate, it seems most likely that the Colombian will stay where he is. After all, he’s amassed an impressive trophy haul with the Argentinian side. A Copa Libertadores and 3 Argentinian Cups is hardly bad going. If they can afford to keep him, then chances are they probably will.
Unless Ange Postecoglou’s powers of persuasion and Spanish language abilities are particularly incredible, and we have the budget to match, don’t expect too much.
We did say it was “ambitious” for Celtic, to be fair.