At times during the summer Celtic fans were convinced that Jose Cifuentes was on his way to the hoops.
The midfielder had impressed for Ecuador during the u-20 World Cup Finals in Poland and seemed to fit the profile of most Celtic signings. Young and promising with an obvious sell on value.
It seemed that Cifuentes was a younger version of Victor Wanyama who would take quickly to the physical nature of Scottish football. For good measure Neil Lennon confirmed an awareness of the 20-year-old after Celtic’s home win over FK Sarajevo in July.
Manchester City were also linked with Cifuentes but that would be for their extensive loan programme while it seemed that a work permit would be easier to obtain as a Celtic player.
Problems over the cut of a transfer fee owed to agents started to emerge, despite missing out on David Turnbull and Rekeem Harper Celtic’s interest in Cifuentes began to fade.
Back home in Ecuador the 20-year-old seems to move regularly between Universidad Catolica and CD America.
When the transfer window closed in August Cifuentes was playing for CD America, at the end of September he picked up a red card against EL Nacional in his 16th appearance of the season.
On Sunday he earned his second full international cap when Ecuador crashed to a 6-1 defeat at home to Argentina.
With a couple of international caps Cifuentes is in a better position to earn a work permit in Europe. Eboue Kouassi was once tipped as a successor for Scott Brown, in January Cifuentes may be getting tipped for that role as the focus returns to the transfer window as Lennon’s squad enjoy a brief break in Dubai.