Celtic and Liverpool sent scouts to France last weekend.
General view of Celtic Park
According to Le Berry, Celtic were among the clubs to send scouts to France last weekend to watch the semi-finals of the Coupe Gambardella.
The Coupe Gambardella is held every year between the under-19 teams in France, and this year’s semi-finals saw Marseille and Lens meet, before Montpellier locked horns with Auxerre.
After a 1-1 draw at the Stade Jacques Rimbault in Bourges, Marseille beat Lens 5-3 on penalties, before Montpellier edged out Auxerre in a 2-1 victory.
Marseille and Montpellier will meet in the final of the competition later this month, and some British teams may take a keen interest having sent scouts to watch both matches on Sunday afternoon.
Le Berry report that Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United all had scouts at the game, whilst Celtic also sent representation ahead of the summer transfer window.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers celebrates
The Bhoys may want to focus on developing young players under Brendan Rodgers, and scouting some of the top young French talent is no great surprise from the Bhoys given that Moussa Dembele has enjoyed huge success.
It’s unclear just who they were watching, but all four clubs have strong recent histories when it comes to producing young players. Marseille brought through the likes of Samir Nasri, Andre Ayew, Jordan Ayew, Medhi Benatia and current starlet Maxime Lopez, whilst Lens aided the development of Raphael Varane, Serge Aurier, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Wylan Cyprien and Thorgan Hazard.
General view inside Celtic Park
Montpellier’s alumni includes Younes Belhanda, Remy Cabella, Benjamin Stambouli and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, and whilst Auxerre’s success was some time ago, they have brought through promising players such as Paul-Georges Ntep, Sebastian Haller, Soualiho Meite and Willy Boly in recent years.
Landing any youngsters who could reach the levels of those players would be huge for Celtic, who have thrived on signing young players from abroad and selling them on for considerable profit – but the presence of Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United may mean that they face huge competition for signings.
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