Moving on from Vinicius Souza to Fausto Vera from Argentinos Juniors

The move to bring Vinicius Souza from Lommel to Celtic Park is not to be. The deal was a struggle from the outset; with up to 20 teams vying for his signature and the struggle to convince both the player to come and play in the Scottish Premiership, and the City Group to allow a purchase option on any loan deal major stumbling blocks.

How never, it seems that the Hoops are moving on quickly and already have another South American in their sights, according to Argentine media publication Latin Tribun. They say that Celtic are interested in midfielder Fausto Vera from Argentinos Juniors and that Belgian side Genk have already made an offer to his club.

The reputed fee is believed to be in the region of €6 million, with the Pro League side even willing to sanction a 30% sell-on within any prospective deal. Not a meagre incentive by any stretch of the imagination for the Latin club and similar to the deal that brought Jota all the way from Benfica to these shores permanently last week.

Rumours will be rife now that Vinicius Souza has decided to choose Espanyol as his home for the forthcoming year – putting an end to our pursuit of the highly talented and thought of Brazilian. But, as Ange has shown in the past, if players are not keen, we move onto other targets.

Now we play the waiting game again to see who we decided to make a play for. There have been so many names linked of late that it is hard to keep up. Many of these possible rumours could just be agents and paper talk, but then again some could carry substance and South America is a place we are scouting significantly – having already snared Alexandro Bernabei from Lanus in Argentina.

Could it be we have stumbled across another gem on the way out?

🔜 🇧🇪 | Belçika’nın Genk ekibi, Argentinos Juniors’un genç orta saha oyuncusu Fausto Vera için resmi teklif yaptı.

💶 | Genk, Arjantin’in en iyi 5 numaralarından olan Vera’nın bonservisinin %70’i için 6 Milyon € teklif etti. Vera’ya Celtic de tâlip.#FaustoVera | #Genk pic.twitter.com/LSi2xU7Ii6

— Latin Tribün (@LatinTribun) July 7, 2022

Paul Gillespie