Teenage Celtic striker Michael Sparkes is believed to be heading on trial to Crystal Palace.
The 17-year-old is out of contract in the summer and would be able to join the English side on a ‘Dembele deal’ that would only compensate Celtic for the years that he has been trained by the club.
The Sun reports:
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE giants Crystal Palace are set to run the rule over Celtic striker Michael Sparkes.
SunSport understands that the highly-rated Hoops teenager has been invited down to Selhurst Park for a trial spell with the South London side.
Sparkes signed his first full professional contract with Celtic in June 2018 when he turned 16. He has since featured regularly for the Hoops under 17s and under 18s teams.
The lack of structure in under-age Scottish football is a major problem in the development of young professionals.
While almost every nation in Europe play at u-17 and u-19 followed by some sort of Reserve League there is no organised football in Scotland beyond u-18 level.
Last season’s Reserve League provided Celtic with 16 matches with the club pulling out of this season’s contest.
Rather than rely on friendly matches to develop players Conor Hazard, Ross Doohan, Lee O’Connor, Jonathan Afolabi and Robbie Deas are out on loan at Scottish Championship sides.
