Strahinja Pavlovic is being linked with Scottish Premiership champions Celtic and Serie A giants Juventus after starring for Partizan Belgrade.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon attended the Europa League qualifier between Connah’s Quay and Partizan Belgrade on Thursday night in order to personally scout the away team’s highly-rated defender Strahinja Pavlovic, according to the Scottish Sun.
It certainly seemed strange that Lennon turned up at the Deeside Stadium. After all, Celtic aren’t planning to play in the Europa League next season and it is not as if they are set to come up against Connah’s Quay or Partizan Belgrade any time soon.
But the reason for his trip to Flintshire appears to have been revealed.
According to the Scottish Sun, Celtic are interested in teenage centre-back Pavlovic and Lennon wanted to watch him in the flesh before potentially making a move during the final few weeks of the transfer window.
The Serbia youth star stands at 6ft 4ins and made his official first-team debut for Partizan as recently as February. Though it hasn’t taken long for clubs all over Europe to realise his potential.
Pavlovic has also been linked with Serie A champions Juventus with Novosti claiming that it could take bids of up to £7 million to convince the Serbian giants to sell.
“When I first heard about (Juventus’s interest), I was alone in Italy with the youth team. At first, I did not believe it but I realised later that it was a more serious story,” Pavlovic said.
Yet with Juventus spending big on three young centre-backs already this summer in Matthijs de Ligt, Merih Demirel and Cristian Romero, the pathway might now be clear for Celtic to make their move.
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