Deal done – Ismaila Soro leaves Celtic in loan deal

Ismaila Soro has sealed his Celtic exit with a loan move to FC Arouca. The Portuguese top flight club have taken Soro on a temporary basis but retain an option to buy the Ivory Coast Internationalist if he impresses.

Arouca tweeted the update that Soro had completed the deal and was signed up for the season this evening.

𝔸 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕙𝕖𝕔𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕤 𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕤 𝕒̀ 𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕒 ⭐

Ismaila Soro, médio defensivo e internacional costa-marfinense, é o mais recente reforço do FC Arouca!

🏆 O médio chega a Portugal depois do título no campeonato escocês#Renascer #DePrimeira #AmorEPaixao pic.twitter.com/szSSMwnN7D

— FC Arouca (@OficialFCArouca) July 9, 2022

The player has made 43 appearances since joining in January 2020 with 19 of these coming last season. Ange Postecoglou clearly didn’t fancy the player, who was often erratic in the centre of the midfield. With Callum McGregor Ange’s preferred candidate in the holding midfield role, James McCarthy and Yosuke Ideguchi in reserve, the writing was on the wall for Soro that his game time would be severely limited.

Supporters thought that they had found a player in Soro when he made appearances under Neil Lennon in the tail end of 2020 as Scott Brown struggled for form. Lennon’s departure as boss and Ange’s arrival afforded Soro the chance to reinvent himself but he didn’t have the relevant skillset to prosper under Ange.

The fact that the player did not go on pre-season with the team in Austria suggested that a deal was close to being completed. Good luck to the player and hopefully Celtic can recoup some of the outlay that was paid to the Israeli side Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv in 2020 if the player impresses.

“O Arouca é muito bom para mim, para a minha carreira e para o meu desenvolvimento, mas, para isso, tenho de trabalhar muito desde o primeiro dia” 🇮🇸🇲🇦🇮🇱🇦 🇸🇴🇷🇴#Renascer #DePrimeira #AmorEPaixao pic.twitter.com/kVWieCZ16t

— FC Arouca (@OficialFCArouca) July 9, 2022

Barkas & Soro now away, If Nicholson can shift Ajeti and Boli your talking 2/2.5 million on wages p/y.

— LubosEleven (@ElevenLubos) July 9, 2022

Players released, loaned, missing*, & sold:
Vasilis Barkas (L)
Nir Bitton
Tom Rogic
Luca Connell
Ryan Mullen
Kerr McInroy
Ross Doohan
Jonathon Afolabi
Barry Coffey
Karamoko Dembele
Brody Paterson
Ewan Henderson
Liam Scales (L)
Adam Montgomery (L)
Soro (L)
Boli*
Hazard (L)

— Celtic SC ©®™ (@Celtic67Fins72) July 9, 2022

With Soro now gone, Bitton gone, that leaves McGregor, Ideguchi and McCarthy as options for the number 6 role.

Unless Ideguchi gets considerable more game time next season, you'd suspect the club (Ange) wouldn't allow Soro to leave without someone new coming in. https://t.co/gchstnfLMZ

— Enda Coll (@enda_coll) July 9, 2022