Celtic are reportedly keen on playmaker Yonatan Cohen.
Celtic brought in just the one attacker in the January transfer window, landing Polish forward Patryk Klimala from Jagiellonia Bialystok.
Klimala can play out wide or up front, and the hope is that he will go on and challenge Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths moving forward.
Neil Lennon and co were still linked with a host of other attackers though, and one of them would have continued the influx of players from Israeli football.
Celtic have seen Ismaila Soro arrive this month from Bnei Yehuda, Israeli international Hatem Abd Elhamed arrived over the summer, and agent Dudu Dahan – who played a role in those moves – also brought the likes of Efe Ambrose, Rami Gershon, Nir Bitton and Beram Kayal to Parkhead.
The Scottish Sun reported in January that Celtic had found another target in Israel, as Maccabi Tel Aviv star Yonatan Cohen was allegedly watched by Celtic in a superb display against Maccabi Haifa.
Cohen, 23, predominantly plays as a number 10 but can also operate out wide, and he has starred this season with 10 goals and eight assists to his name.
Now, Israeli journalist Nir Tsadok of Haaretz has spoken to the Scottish Mail on Sunday (02/02, p121) about Cohen, praising him as a player of ‘star quality’ and for having ‘cold blood’ in front of goal.
Tsadok noted that Roma are also keen, and Maccabi are likely to want a bidding war, but thinks Celtic can easily afford the fee to sign Cohen – and may be able to make a big profit on him because he’s such a talented player.
“Cohen is the most talked about player in Israel,” said Tsadok. “He has been compared to Eran Zahavi, who is the main player in the national team. Cohen is like a second striker. He moves well around the box and is a very good finisher.”
“Yonatan has a star quality. He is one of those players who is capable of scoring the decisive goal. In front of goal, he has cold blood. He knows how to score goals. Maccabi do not need the money right now and they are going for the championship in Israel. They will also want to make a competition out of any moves for Cohen and there is speculation that Roma are also interested. Maccabi will want a fee of around £2.5m – £3.5m. Celtic can afford that money – and could make a profit on that in a couple of years’ time,” he added.
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