Despite interest from Premier League giants Spurs and Bundesliga outfit Borussia Dortmund, Ajer will be staying in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic.
It should not be underestimated just how well Celtic have done to tie Kristoffer Ajer down to a new four-year contract.
The 20-year-old defender has enjoyed a fine breakthrough season in Scotland with Celtic one win away from successive domestic trebles. And his form had earned the attention of some of Europe’s biggest clubs, TEAMtalk linking Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund with a summer swoop for the giant centre-back.
But Ajer has committed his future to Brendan Rodgers’ happy Hoops.
“I was just 100 per cent focused on Celtic and when this opportunity came up to renew my contract I was really happy with that because there is not a better club for me to be at right now,” the Norwegian, who arrived from IK Start in 2016, told the Daily Record.
Reading between the lines, however, is this new contract simply delaying the inevitable?
Ajer believes Celtic is the best place for him to develop ‘right now’, which can perhaps be taken as a suggestion that first-team football under Brendan Rodgers will allow him to fulfil his vast potential and then, inevitably, get that big move to a Spurs or a Dortmund later down the line when he can immediately fight for a place in their starting XI.
While Ajer is a crucial member of Celtic’s first-team, he’d have been a squad player at best in North London or Germany.
And just because he is staying for now does not mean that Celtic can rest easy, safe in the knowledge that Ajer will definitely be in Glasgow for the next four seasons. Virgil van Dijk, Ki Sung-Yeung and Victor Wanyama are just three players who have recently bid farewell to Celtic after developing at a remarkable rate north of the border.
It seems a little unlikely that Ajer won’t end up following in their footsteps eventually.
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