Leading Swedish newspaper Expressen are reporting that Rubin Kazan have agreed a deal worth just under £5m to sell Sead Haksabanovic to Celtic.
The 23-year-old has spent the summer in Sweden, playing 11 matches on loan for Djurgarden as he attempts to strike a deal with Rubin.
Russian football has virtually collapsed since the invasion of Ukraine with clubs banned from UEFA competition and foreign players looking for a route out of the country.
Late on Thursday morning Expressen reported:
During the spring, Haksabanovic, who belongs to Russian Rubin Kazan, played for Djurgarden and the star did not rule out that there could be a continuation in the Allsvenskan.
But it won’t be like that.
According to the Russian Football News Twitter account, which refers to Vladislav Zimagulov, Rubin Kazan has agreed a permanent transfer with Celtic. They write that the Russian club is selling the 23-year-old for less than the roughly 60 million they paid IFK Norrkoping.
In Celtic, Sead Haksabanovic once again becomes a teammate with the Swedish national team defender Carl Starfelt, who also has a past in Rubin Kazan.
Expressen will have checked out the credibility of the Russian Football News account before publishing their claim about Haksabanovic.
Although brought up in Sweden the 23-year-old is a full internationalist for Montenegro, as a former team-mate of Carl Starfelt he’ll be aware of how things develop last season at Celtic.
It seems that Haksabanovic can play in any of the three forward positions which gives Ange Postecoglou the sort of flexibility that he hinted at for his final, hectic transfer activities in the summer window.
60m Swedish krona converts to £4.8m at today’s rates.
Rubin Kazan have agreed to sell Sead Haksabanovic to Celtic for less than the €6.5m they paid for him last summer, according to the reliable Vladislav Zimagulov.
He’ll link up with former teammate Carl Starfelt in Glasgow.
— Russian Football News (@RusFootballNews) August 18, 2022
I would have thought a financial deal would be fraught with difficulty as sending money to Russia is a big no, no.
That leaves questions about transferring cash to Rubin Kazan.
I’m also sure that our media will be all over it attempting to drag us into some sort of embargo breaking story.
Well you know how they’re sticklers for rules when it’s anyone other than the Ibrox club.
Everything is OK.
The Daily Rectum are reporting (sic) that Celtic are dealing with Kazan’s ‘Engine Room Subsidiary’ or was it the ‘Holding Company’,
and that funding is being underwritten by a Dublin based Trillionaire.
So I would fully expect the SFA to give it the Green light.