Celtic are brilliant at signing and developing young players before selling them on for profit on the future, as evidenced by the stars they have sold over the years.
As recently as January, the Scottish Premiership champions raked in a reported fee of £10m for Japan international centre-forward Kyogo Furuhashi from Rennes, yet he does not even place within the top sales in the club’s history.
Kieran Tierney
£25m
Matt O’Riley
£25m
Jota
£25m
Moussa Dembele
£20m
Odsonne Edouard
£18.5m
Kristoffer Ajer
£13.5m
Virgil van Dijk
£13m
As you can see in the table above, the likes of Jota, Matt O’Riley, and Kieran Tierney have all been sold for more than twice as much, the latest of which was O’Riley’s move to Brighton last summer.
Two of those players are also now back at Parkhead. Jota returned to Glasgow from Rennes on a permanent deal in January, whilst Tierney has joined on a free transfer from Arsenal, six years on from his move to the Premier League.
These are some of the top examples of players who have thrived in the Premiership for Celtic before making the club millions by moving elsewhere, and a great example of their brilliant recruitment work is central defender Kristoffer Ajer.
Celtic hit the jackpot with Kristoffer Ajer
In February 2016, the Scottish giants paid a reported fee of just £650k to sign the centre-back after a trial spell at Parkhead from Norwegian side Start.
The Hoops identified the young defender as a promising talent at the age of just 17, and were patient with him before they introduced the starlet to the first-team.
Ajer spent time in the academy, playing youth league football, before being sent out on loan to Kilmarnock in the Premiership, before his emergence as a senior option for Celtic in the 2017/18 campaign.
The towering youngster then went on to score seven goals and provide seven assists in 176 appearances in all competitions for the Hoops before his exit in the summer of 2021.
February 2016
£650k reported fee
February 2017
£680k
August 2018
£1m
August 2019
£2.5m
January 2021
£3.4m
June 2021
£6m
July 2021
£13.5m reported fee
As you can see in the table above, Ajer’s market value soared way beyond the initial £650k that the Hoops reportedly paid Start to sign him as a 17-year-old.
In the summer of 2021, Premier League side Brentford reportedly paid a fee of £13.5m to sign the centre-back, breaking their own transfer record, which represented a huge profit for Celtic.
This shows that the Scottish giants hit the jackpot with the young defender as they identified his potential at an incredibly young age and went on to benefit from it with performances on the pitch and a huge fee when he left.
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Transfer Focus
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According to Mozzart Sport, as relayed by B92, Celtic are interested in a deal to sign Red Star Belgrade central defender Veljko Milosavljević in the summer transfer window.
The report claims that the Hoops have already made an enquiry about the 17-year-old starlet, and made an offer of £5m that was turned down by the Serbian outfit.
It adds that two teams from England are also eyeing up the young centre-back, but they have yet to make any official bids for his services as of yet.
Red Star Belgrade are said to want more than £5m that Celtic put on the table for the teenage titan, although the report does not mention exactly how much they would want for him.
Why Celtic should sign Veljko Milosavljević
The Hoops should sign the Serbian youngster before the summer transfer window slams shut at the start of September because he has the potential to be Ajer 2.0 at Parkhead.
Whilst he would not arrive for a cheap fee of £650k, given that they have already had an offer of £5m turned down for him, the Red Star talent would arrive as another teenage centre-back with the potential to develop and improve, therefore growing in value in the future.
Despite not turning 18 till this weekend, the Celtic target has already played 19 first-team matches for the Serbian giants, and established himself as a regular in the league in the second half of the 2024/25 campaign.
Milosavljević initially caught the eye in the Serbian youth league, winning 11.8 duels per game across eight starts in the division, before being made a permanent member of Vladan Milojevic’s first-team squad.
Appearances
14
Starts
11
Pass accuracy
90%
Tackles + interceptions per game
2.2
Dribbled past per game
0.2x
Error led to shot
0
Error led to goal
0
Penalties committed
0
As you can see in the table above, the teenage talent started 11 of his 14 outings for the Superliga champions, as the centre-back showed that he could compete in a team that was chasing the league title.
Milosavljević, who scout Gianni Bellasi described as a “physically imposing” defender, proved himself to be a reliable option at the back, despite his inexperience, with zero errors that led to shots, goals, or penalties.
That is particularly impressive when you consider that Liam Scales made two such errors and Auston Trusty made five such errors in the Premiership for Celtic this season, in a title-winning side for Brendan Rodgers.
This shows that it is not easy to play a lot of games without making costly mistakes as a centre-back in a dominant team, given the nature of how much they look to play out from the back, but the Serbian star has shown promise in that respect.
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Therefore, Milosavljević could follow in Ajer’s footsteps at Parkhead if Celtic sign him this summer because he is a 17-year-old centre-back talent who has shown that he has the qualities to be a reliable figure at the back if he can adapt to Scottish football.
Of course, there are no guarantees in football and there is no telling exactly how he will develop, but his career to date suggests that the potential is there for him to be an exciting signing for the Hoops.