Celtic’s decade-long supremacy in Scottish football is still continuing despite Rangers’ resurgence under Steven Gerrard. The Hoops have maintained the legacy of promoting youth players who earned attention for their sheer excellence and their current squad, too, contains an array of promising names who are drawing interest from the European heavyweights.
While Odsonne Edouard is making the headlines frequently over a potential Premier League transfer, Celtic’s highly-rated centre-half Kristoffer Ajer has been identified by A.C. Milan as their key summer target according to Italian publication CalcioMercato. The 21-year-old Norway international has been a revelation in the heart of the Bhoys’ backline and has secured a starting role ahead of many experienced individuals.
How He Settled In Celtic Defence This Early In His Career
Although Ajer started his career in midfield back in his homeland, the defender was shifted to a central defensive role by Brendan Rodgers to cope up with injury problems. The youngster never looked back ever since and kept on impressing week in week out with his calmness, composure and game-reading traits.
The 6ft 6in defender holds the aerial supremacy in deep defence and also poses a threat from set-pieces that saw him scoring a few times this season. Ajer has already appeared more than 100 times for Celtic across all competitions along with 16 senior national caps since making his debut back in March 2018 against Australia.
Why Milan Are Eyeing A Promising Centre-half
Milan, meanwhile, witnessed a downfall in recent years and are struggling to reclaim their elite European status for quite some time. But they still hold power to attract talents and therefore, are capable of splashing the cash to secure Ajer’s services. The growing uncertainty over the future of Mateo Musacchio and Simon Kjær might leave a void in the defensive line, and the arrival of the Premiership prospect would lead to an exciting pairing alongside skipper Alessio Romagnoli.
The Celtic prodigy is regarded as a modern-day centre-back who loves to play it out from the back, often carrying the ball forward from the deep and distributing upfront banking on his dribbling and passing attributes. Ajer’s ability to adjust to various set-ups as well as the expertise in featuring across the backline depict the all-round aspect of his game.
The Hoops, however, are likely to slap a high asking fee on one of their prized assets. They have replaced Dedryck Boyata with Christopher Jullien and might have to explore the market once more to find an able alternative of the highly-rated Norwegian.
