Benfica step up their interest in Celtic linked defender

Benfica are reported to be showing interest in Francisco Ortega who was linked with Celtic at the weekend by the Daily Mail. 

According to Portuguese publisher Ojogo the Lisbon side have sent their Sporting Director to Argentina to handle direct talks with the player and his club, Velez Sarsfield. 

Left-back seems to be a priority position for Celtic to transfer in the summer transfer window with Greg Taylor virtually unchallenged in that position over the last three months of the season. 

On the other side of the defence Ange Postecoglou has Josip Juranovic competing for a place in the team with Ortega or Hammarby’s Mohanad Jeahze likely to offer a similar situation at left-back. 

Ojogo reveals: 

Benfica’s sporting director, Rui Pedro Braz, is in Argentina to take stock of the squad’s reinforcement plan and, according to O JOGO, has in his sights 23-year-old left-back Francisco Ortega, who plays for Vélez, and has the same representative of Enzo Fernández, another player that is in the red thoughts, yesterday associated with the trip of the Benfica leader to Buenos Aires. 

Later the report adds: 

The target is Francisco Ortega, a 23-year-old, 1.77m left defender who has a career in the youth teams, with presence in the under-20, under-23 and Olympic team, for which he showed defensive ability, physical presence and creativity in attack. Holder of Vélez and with experience of Copa Libertadores, is valued at 4 M€. Contact with the club will follow for Benfica to fill a gap in the squad and for which there are several names. 

Although Celtic’s season is now at an end Postecoglou is hoping to have most of his transfer business in place by the time he takes his squad to a pre-season training camp in Austria at the start of July. 

Resolving the contract positions of Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers will be the number one priority but a new left-back appears to be the priority position as Postecoglou gets his squad in shape to defend the SPFL while returning Celtic to the Champions League for the first time since 2017. 

In January the Celtic boss showed his flexibility when interest in Riley McGree switched quickly to Matt O’Riley who seemed very close to joining Swansea before Celtic showed their interest.

CLICK HERE for Ortega’s Transfermarkt profile.