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Celtic involved in five way bidding war for 24-year-old midfielder

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Celtic are one of five clubs reported to be interested in signing Joseph Okumu.

The midfielder is under contract until July 2022 with Swedish side Elfsborg hoping to land a fee of £3.4m.

With Scott Brown joining Aberdeen and doubts over the future of Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie midfield is obviously an area that Celtic need to strengthen.

Who is making transfer decisions is the obvious question at this moment with an Interim Manager, an outgoing CEO and no replacement for Head of Football Operations Nicky Hammond who quit the club at the end of March.

Aftonbladet reports:

A minor bidding war has begun over Elfsborg’s Joseph Okumu, 24. Five clubs – Rangers, Celtic, Ghent, Reims and Lorient – want to sign the midfielder. The highest bid right now: just over SEK 30 million.

The risk is growing that Joseph Okumu will not finish the Allsvenskan season with Elfsborg. Sportbladet has previously written about the great interest in the midfielder. Now the foreign clubs have also acted in practice before this summer’s transfer window.

According to Sportbladet’s sources, five (!) Clubs have registered interest and offered significant transfer sums for the Kenyan national team player.

The biggest bid, just over SEK 30 million, comes from French Lorient, who finished in 16th place in Ligue 1 recently. Reims, two places higher up, is also willing to pay a similar amount.

The Scottish champions Rangers, who enter the third qualifying round of the Champions League, are probably the most attractive option for the Elfsborg player but have, like their rival, table runner-up Celtic and Belgian Ghent, who will qualify for the new Conference League, with their bids so far not matched French stakeholders.

Okuma moved to Elfsborg in 2019 following one season in the USLC (second tier) with Real Monarchs.

Callum McGregor and Ismaila Soro look like being the first pick midfielders for Celtic’s next manager but with McGregor involved in the European Championships he is likely to miss Celtic’s pre-season training camp in Wales where they will play three Behind Closed Doors matches.

CLICK HERE for Okumu Transfermarkt profile.

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