If Celtic fans are following the Olympics, a familiar name might have leapt out at them today.
That’s because a certain Eboue Kouassi was playing for Ivory Coast against Brazil in a Group D game in Tokyo.
Actually, some Celtic fans may have forgotten about his very existence because despite spending three years on the Hoops’ books, he only ever managed 12 senior appearances.
But he’s back in the news today – and it’s for the wrong reasons
The 23-year-old was sent off for two bookings against Brazil and will now miss his country’s last group game, which comes against Germany on Wednesday.
Backwards
Kouassi has gone backwards a little in terms of his career, it has to be said.
Celtic spent almost £3 million on bringing him to Parkhead in 2017, during Brendan Rodgers’s reign.
In fact, the Irish manager – now at Leicester City – was so confident of him being a success in Glasgow that he even claimed that Kouassi would be Scott Brown’s long-term replacement at Paradise.
He told The Daily Record in 2018: “Eboue’s brilliant in training, he does everything, and longer term he will certainly fulfill that role when Scott moves on.”
Rodgers got a lot of things right at Celtic, but there’s no doubt that this has proven a truly rotten prediction because he only managed a handful of senior appearances for the club after these quotes.
In Kouassi’s defence, his presence at the Olympics is suggestive that he has been rebuilding his career since joining Genk in Belgium last year.
It just so happens that Celtic finally do need a long-term replacement for their legendary captain, who left the club this summer.
But Kouassi never showed anything to suggest he would be that man.
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