The striker was first linked with Celtic on June 19 in a report from David Friel in The Sun.
A few outlets picked up on the story this morning with Anthony Joseph first covering it at lunchtime.
At 3.19 pm this afternoon Joseph provided an update that negotiations are underway.
Negotation should be:
You want £3 million? Okay, we also value him in that range. Deal.
Instead, Nicholson and McKay will probably ask if they can loan him, ur up the bids by £100k at a time.
— keithr5808 (@keithr58088) July 3, 2026
Duran certainly made his mark last season after joining Qarabag from Portuguese side Portimonense.
A total of 15 goals isn’t eye-catching but with five coming in the Champions League Duran certainly has something of interest.
CELTIC KEEN ON CHAMPIONS LEAGUE STRIKER
Those goals came against Benfica, Ajax and two against Eintracht Frankfurt. Duran also scored in the Round of 16 Play Off against Newcastle although his side lost 9-3 on aggregate.
Duran has had an uneventful career but at the age of 24 it seems that everything has come together on the back of a move to Azerbaijan.
A fee of £2.5-3m seems like a snip compared to recent fees paid for strikers.
Odsonne Edouard cost £9m in 2018, Albian Ajeti £5m in 2020 and Adam Idah £8m in 2024.
Even strikers like Vakoun Bayo and Patryk Klimala were reported to be in the £3-4m range.
As things stand Callum Osmand, Shin Yamada and Johnny Kenny are the only first team strikers at Celtic.
Kelechi Iheanacho appears to have been released with Junior Adamu and Tomas Cvancara returned to their loan clubs. Daizen Maeda is having a break after Japan exited the World Cup Finals.
Celtic play their first pre-season match on Tuesday away to Shelbourne. One week later they play Sporting Lisbon before home friendlies against Middlesbrough and AC Milan.
Martin O’Neill will be hoping to get some new signings in for those matches but it already looks like time is slipping away.
Those pre-season games look like being mainly for fitness. Putting together a new style of play will require a fuller first team squad.
It looks like interest in Duran is at an advanced stage although there is clearly still work to be done to sign the Colombian striker.
CLICK HERE for Duran’s Transfermarkt profile.
I can predict celtic will do well in transfer market just don’t panic and realise that caution has been celtics dominance
Editor: A visitor in from Celtic Thick News! care to share any details on Mute Mike’s Masterplan?
To SD , dominance in a one horse race ..the huns died leaving zero competition in Scotland .. the fact that we haven’t won everything is failure in itself .
Duran Duran…
Please Please tell me now…
Is there something I should know…
Please Please tell me now…
Is there something I should say !
Celtic really spending big on a top forward what is O’Neil saying about this farce” or is he just going to go with the flow has a nice pension top up a few million i expect not going to rock the boat only has 12 months and offski.
i totally disagree with your view of O’Neil , I think if he wasn’t being assured of being backed in the transfer market he would not have signed up for another year , O’Neil is a winner & i fully believe he will be a winner at the end of the season . 6 in a row
Editor: A wise man would check out how Deila, Lennon, Ange and Rodgers were let down by boardroom promises. Martin should know from January what Nicholson is capable of.
As did martin in his very first stint. Second last season I think he spent under a million of memory serves me right then his last season he got nothing at all to spend
Does anybody have any confidence that MN / McKay will be able to, erm,
box clever with Duran… or will we be disqualified for a low offer?
You’ve got to laugh, or you’d cry at our farcical transfer activity? 🙂