Two Premier League clubs have been linked with signing Celtic’s 17-year-old Rocco Vata.
Vata’s contract with Celtic is set to expire in May 2024, but the Hoops are determined to keep the teenager long term at the club with a new deal. Crystal Palace and West Ham have both reportedly shown their interest in signing the player, according to Nicolo Schira, who is a self-described ‘transfer expert’ with just under 300,000 followers on Twitter.
🚨 Excl. – #WestHam and #CrystalPalace are interested in #Celtic’s young talent Rocco #Vata (born in 2005). His contract with Celtic expires in 2024, even if the scottish club would like to extend it. #transfers #WHUFC #CPFC
— Nicolò Schira (@NicoSchira) January 10, 2023
Celtic’s Academy is full of young talent, which has led many clubs around Europe scouting players from Celtic. Clubs like Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and Liverpool have all recently scouted and signed players from the Celtic Academy. Vincent Angelin also left the Hoops to join Watford, as well as Rory Mahady heading to Leeds United from Celtic.
Rocco Vata made his competitive first-team debut recently at Easter Road where Celtic defeated Hibs 4-0 and that’s an indication of how highly rated he is be the Celtic coaching staff for both the B Team and all the way up to Ange Postecoglou managing the Celtic first team.
Vata has all the attributes to be the first young player in quite a while to break into the Celtic first team and become a top star, we maybe missed out on Ben Doak who decided against following a similar path to instead take the chance to join Liverpool. Celtic can’t let that happen again and the way to keep the best young players at the club is to bring them through to the first team. If they are good enough why not play them, especially with the new five subs rule there is plenty of scope to do just that more surely?
A new long term deal for Rocco Vata would be brilliant news. Get it done, Celtic!
