Scottish Premiership giants Celtic will be ruing their failure to sign Mariano Diaz ahead of Ligue 1 side Lyon last summer.
Mariano Diaz might not have made the grade at Real Madrid but there was no shortage of clubs willing to give a platform to the young Spanish striker as he prepared to leave Los Blancos last summer.
And, according to the Mirror, Celtic were among them.
Mariano had only made 14 appearances in all competitions for Real in 2016/17 but Hoops manager Brendan Rodgers, who has quite the eye for talent, obviously saw something special in the one-time Dominican Republic international.
And, one year on, Celtic’s failure to bring Mariano to Parkhead looks costly – literally.
In the end the striker chose Lyon, moving to Ligue 1 for a fee of £7 million, and he has enjoyed a stunning breakthrough campaign at the Parc OL that will probably leave Celtic kicking themselves that they could not get a deal over the line.
Mariano has scored 18 goals in 30 Ligue 1 starts this season and has 21 in all competitions for Lyon. And it seems that the 24-year-old has learned plenty from Cristiano Ronaldo as there does not appear to be a weakness in his fearsome repertoire.
Mariano can score goals from any distance and with any body part. Who knows, Mariano could have even overshadowed Moussa Dembele at Celtic.
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