Scottish Premiership champions Celtic seem determined to keep key defender Dedryck Boyata but interest from La Liga outfit Sevilla is rising.
Dedryck Boyata’s future has just taken another twist.
The Belgian defender has been linked with a move away from Celtic all summer long and his agent recently told the Daily Record that, if he is not sold before the end of August, he will sign a pre-contract agreement with a new club in January and leave on a free next year.
According to the Daily Record (live blog, 8.50am), Boyata returned to training with the first-team squad after being demoted to the U20s over the weekend. And Hoops manager Brendan Rodgers has indicated that he would be willing to repair relations with the 28-year-old so long as he apologised to his team-mates.
But the chances of Boyata remaining at Celtic this month still look to be up in the air. Particularly with Sevilla very much still interested.
“Boyata is one of those players that we have been following for a long time. Defence is an area we need to reinforce,” Sevilla’s sporting director Joaquin Caparros told the Daily Record (live blog, 10.40am).
“We must proceed calmly because there are many factors with a transfer that doesn’t just depend on ourselves.”
Sevilla have reinforced their defence by signing Sergi Gomez, Joris Gnangon and Amadou Ibrahim this summer so it is far from guaranteed that Boyata would be a regular starter if he moved to La Liga.
Celtic will not be letting Boyata go on the cheap, having rejected a £9 million bid from Fulham last month as reported by The Mail.
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