“It’s the first time that I heard about it,” Arne Engels | OneFootball

Arne Engels has vowed to stay focused for the Scottish Cup final, despite speculation that Atalanta are preparing a summer bid for him…

Arne Engels scores. St Mirren v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Saturday 1st March 2025. Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Engels, who joined Celtic from Augsburg in Germany for a club-record £11 million last August, stated he was unaware of Atalanta’s interest as he prepared for tomorrow’s clash with Aberdeen at Hampden.

The Belgian international emphasised that his sole focus is on assisting Brendan Rodgers’ side in securing the domestic treble this weekend and continuing his development with the team in the 2025/26 season.

When questioned about the rumours linking him to Serie A club Atalanta, the midfielder responded via Daily Record: “I didn’t read it so it’s the first time that I heard about it. There will always be something to write or to talk about.”

Arne Engels of Celtic arrives prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Hibernian FC at Celtic Park on May 10, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“If you have a good season and hopefully win a lot of things then there will always be clubs and will always be speculation around a lot of players. I think I am not the only one here that will have speculation in the summer. I’m just focused here now on the next game and it’s a really big one and then in the summer I only want to get better.”

Engels added: “There is always a lot of things to get better on and also as a team we still lost some games and we don’t want to lose any games next year. I think there will be a lot of work in the summer that we need to do.”

“We need to get better so that we can hopefully have a better season next year. It’s a big thing to go into Europe and to do really well there and hopefully we can compete for all the trophies again like we did this year. We will see where we end.”

Arne Engels of Celtic celebrates scoring to make the score 1-0 Celtic v Dundee at Celtic Park, on 5 February 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace Shutterstock

The 21-year-old, who has contributed to Celtic’s Premier Sports League Cup and Scottish Premiership victories, acknowledged that a key motivation for joining the Hoops this season was to understand what it takes to secure silverware.

He highlighted how much he is valued the experience of winning trophies over the last nine months and expressed his eagerness to collect even more honours in the future.

Leroy Sane of Bayern Munich passes the ball whilst under pressure from Arne Engels of Celtic during the UEFA Champions League Knockout Play-off First Leg match between Celtic and Bayern München at Celtic Park on February 12, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“It would be amazing to do the treble, to accomplish that,” Engels said. “It was of course a big thing to come here and to win trophies. To be able to hopefully win three trophies in the end would be an amazing feeling, it would be a perfect season for me to start here.

“I didn’t really win a lot of things before and that’s why I came here. I wanted to experience that and to see how it is to win things or to compete for the trophies and to get that feeling. If you go somewhere else or you don’t know how it is to win. Here you have everything to do that.”

Conor Spence

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