Former Ajax Scout Makes Admission On Celtic Out-on-loan Star | OneFootball

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Former Ajax scout Hans van der Zee has revealed that he had Celtic star Gustaf Lagerbielke on his mind for the Dutch giants before he joined the Bhoys.

Celtic signed Lagerbielke from Elfsborg in the summer of 2023 after he turned some heads with his performances for the Swedish side in the Allsvenskan.

The Glasgow giants paid a hefty fee for the centre-back’s signature; however, Lagerbielke featured only seven times for them in the league before sealing a loan move to FC Twente last summer.

The 24-year-old Celtic loanee has been a regular for Twente this season and, at the weekend, helped his team secure a 1-0 victory over Almere City.

Van der Zee was not impressed by Twente’s performance in the game, but added that Lagerbielke put in a positive display and revealed that the Celtic star was on his mind when he was at Ajax, but the Swede joined the Bhoys.

The former Ajax scout stressed that Lagerbielke did not perform well for Celtic, otherwise, Brendan Rodgers would have kept him at Parkhead this season.

“I did think Lagerbielke was a positive exception”, Van der Zee said on Dutch football show 1Twente Voetbaltijd (via Voetbal Primeur).

“I thought he played well. I also had him in mind for Ajax when he was still playing at Elfsborg.

“Then he went to Celtic for €3.5m. He didn’t do well at Celtic.

“Otherwise they don’t loan him out. Then you do keep him.”

Dutch outfit Twente could well be looking to keep Lagerbielke in the Eredivisie next season given his performances.

However, the centre-back has a contract with Celtic until 2028 and the onus will be on Twente to come up with a deal which is acceptable to the Scottish champions.