Celtic reportedly wanted the new Virgil van Dijk in the Scottish Premiership – but he’s joined the La Liga winners Barca instead.
It’s not often that a 17-year-old is your team’s star man. Then again, Xavier Mbuyamba isn’t your ordinary teenager.
Still four months shy of his 18th birthday, Mbuyamba has already established himself as one of the brightest talents in a golden generation of young Dutch footballers with his outstanding performances for MVV Maastricht catching the eye of clubs all across the continent, from Glasgow to Catalonia.
According to Voetbal International, Celtic were keeping tabs on a player who has been labelled, perhaps inevitably, as the new Virgil van Dijk. Chelsea were interested too, alongside Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Porto.
But rather than take the Van Dijk route and joining Celtic as a stepping stone to stardom, Mbuyamba has cut out the middle man altogether.
La Liga champions Barcelona broke the news on their official Twitter feed on Monday that Mbuyamba has joined the famous La Masia academy, where he will look to follow in the footsteps of Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
“Coming to a club like Barcelona and being trained by them is perhaps an opportunity that wouldn’t come a second time,” Mbuyamba, who also spent time on trial at Chelsea, told the Prestige Sports website.
“When my agent called me and told me that they wanted me, I got a special feeling. That feeling was ultimately decisive for me.”
It’s too early to suggest that Celtic have missed out on a generational talent every bit as good as the £75 million Champions League winner Van Dijk. But everything points to Mbuyamba heading all the way to the top – and fast.
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