Another day, another Celtic transfer rumour.
This one is about Arab-Israeli holding midfielder Mohammad Abu Fani. He is 24. He has already accrued vast experience, including 13 caps for the national team. He ticks a lot of the boxes.
On top of that, he’s pretty famous on YouTube for an astonishing clip where he and his team-mates kept the ball on or around the corner flag for two full minutes towards the end of a crucial game against their Israeli title rivals.
Fani is at the centre of that footage, showing aggression, determination and strength.
He might only be 5’7 (N’Golo Kante is 5’6) but he is powerful.
And he demonstrated the importance of the moment with a fist pump to the fans behind the goal.
Celtic will scout him for Israeli’s up and coming internationals, which suggests that we’re still a way from making an official bid. But we’ve had success in that market before, and it’s one that we should be keeping a close eye on, always.
The holding midfield is a critical area of this team, and one where we definitely need some additional power. If this guy is well scouted, if the analytics are right, if the manager signs off then we’ll trust the judgement of the top people at the club.
We have a good record in this marketplace.
If we do follow this up it will only be at the end of a long examination of what the guy can offer us. In the meantime … check out the clip that everyone is talking about today. It’s worth a watch.
His surname’s a bit unfortunate.
It could be worse Tony, in fact it could be total Scheidt,
I keep hearing about holding midfield players – it all makes perfect sense. Except it really doesn’t. We play 3 in the midfield not 4. You can sign as many holding midfield players as you want but generally speaking they hold a central position covering the back 4. They will not play even if signed. Ask James McCarthy
As Beram Kayal used to say, you think playing, at that time, old firm derby’s is hard, try being an Arab playing in the Israeli league, this is the type of guy we want.
Martin, there are many Arabs playing in the Israeli League, just as there are many Arab citizens of Israel.