Celtic transfer target Bahlul Mustafazade has admitted he would love to sign for the Hoops this summer, as reported by The Evening Times.
The Scottish Sun reported last week that the Azerbaijani defender, who has a market value of £225,000 according to Transfermarkt, is set to arrive in Glasgow for a trial having apparently initially impressing Hoops scouts.
His contract expires at top-flight club Gabala in his homeland at the end of the season and he’s made his intentions clear to reporters over the weekend.
As quoted by The Evening Times, the 22-year-old said:
I don’t want to comment on the situation at the moment, but of course I would want to play for a club like Celtic.
If a contract proposal happened then I would certainly jump at it.
I’m out of contract at the end of the season, but at the moment I am fighting to try and ensure Gabala get into Europe.
With just 34 senior appearances to his name so far in his career, Mustafazade doesn’t have great experience for his age but clearly staff at Lennoxtown have spotted talent there they’d like to explore further.
The player has won 10 caps for Azerbaijan’s U21 side.
Rather worryingly, his only experience of European football came in a 2-0 defeat to Progres Niederkorn in 2018, who you might remember as the minnows who embarrassed Pedro Caixinha two summers ago.
Targeting prospects is all well and good but hopefully we also have other transfers in the pipeline, players who can come in and immediately compete for first-team places.