Negotiations nearing an end in deal for 28-year-old Celt

In a reverse of recent trends Giorgos Giakoumakis appears to be close to joining Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds.

During the World Cup break a story emerged that the striker was unhappy over a proposed salary rise, soon afterwards it was reported that Giakoumakis had switched from the agent that negotiated his five year Celtic contract in August 2021.

Having alternated the striking role with Kyogo Furuhashi during the first part of the season the Greek internationalist has had to make do with six substitute appearances since the story broke.

Last week Midtjylland were reported to be interested in Giakoumakis but today Japanese site Hochi News report:

It was revealed on the 7th that Urawa are moving to acquire Greece representative forward Giorgos Giakumakis (28) from Scottish First Division Celtic. An offer has already been made and the negotiations are nearing the end.

Giakumakis won the top scorer (26 goals) in the Dutch 1st division VVV in 2020-21 with a height of 185 cm as a weapon. He joined Celtic last season and scored 14 goals to win the title. He has scored 8 goals in the official match this season, but the game continues to hand over the regular to FW Kyogo Furuhashi.

Urawa’s attacking team has now transferred to Nagoya, with Junker transferring to Nagoya and Tsutomu Esaka to Ulsan (South Korea). To J1 championship since 2006, a single arrow stood in the striker who boasts high decisiveness.

Finding goalscoring strikers is far from easy as the examples of Vakoun Bayo, Patryk Klimala and Albian Ajeti have demonstrated in recent times at Celtic.

With more than three years left on his contract any deal for Giakoumakis will be on Celtic’s terms with the club aware of his unhappiness over his current contract.

Finding a striker that contributes more won’t be straightforward but South Korean Cho Gue-sung has been heavily linked with Postecoglou well aware of the strengths of the Asian transfer market.