Celtic hits a star, he sells more than Van Dijk

Celtics manager Brendan Rodgers received strong support from the board in the summer transfer window last year as they made several big signings to strengthen his team.

Auston Trusty received a £6m fee from the British side of Sheffield United, competing with Liam and at the Centre-Back.

The basketball team also agreed to a £9.5 million deal with an initial fee of £8.5 million, and he will permanently sign Ireland International Adam Idada State in Norwich after borrowing the second half of last season and winning the SFA Cup final against the Rangers.

Idada isn’t the only signing of a club record deal that threatens Odsonne Edouard – moving £9 million from PSG in 2018 – Belgian midfielder Arne Engels arrived in Augsburg from Augsburg for a reported £11 million.

The 21-year-old has scored nine goals and 12 assists in all games so far this season and has the potential to be one of the club’s next big sales in the future.

The Celtics are no stranger to them, as they have made millions of dollars over the years, and Matt O’Riley moved to Brighton & Hove Albion last summer, a recent example.

Celtic’s Maximum Sales

The Scottish Giants have developed the habit of making big money in stars, which shows that the club has an excellent recruiting strategy as they have always found quality young prospects and developed them into very valuable assets.

O’Riley is a great example as Celtic signed him from the British League side MK Dons for £1.5m in the January transfer window in early 2022 before selling him for a higher fee for two and a half years later.

As you can see in the table above, current Celtic forward Jota, who rejoined the club in the recent January window, is one of the club’s largest sales ever.

Kieran Tierney has agreed to join the club in the summer, with a free transfer from Arsenal, meaning two of the Celtic’s top three record sales will be back together at Parkhead to the 2025/26 campaign.

One player the Scottish Giants may hope they can bring back Parkhead is central defender Virgil Van Dijk, whose departure from the club won’t ruin the five biggest sales in team history.

How many Celtics sold Virgil Van Dijk

In the summer of 2015, the Premier League Southampton quickly signed the Dutch centre-back, reportedly at £11.5 million and another £1.5 million in potential add-ons.

Manager Neil Lennon said the basketball team had signed Natherlands International from Groningen for a fee of 2 million euros (£1.7 million), which meant the club made huge profits by making money for £10 million ahead of the 2013/14 campaign.

Van Dijk won an astonishing 115 first-team match for the Celtic in just two years at the club, and won 15 goals and seven assists from the centre-back position.

The huge central defender then proved his worth in the Premier League, with the Saints snapped up at Liverpool for record expenses over the next two and a half years.

According to the BBC Sport, Jurgen Klopp’s side made Van Dijk the most expensive defender in game history, with his service of £75 million in January 2018.

As you can see in the table above, the Dutch star joined their four annual PFA teams in four of their six seasons at Anfield midway through his 2017/18 campaign.

However, despite the Dutch winning the grand prize with Kristoffer Ajer, the Celtics were once able to cash out with a centre-back who won by Van Dijk.

Celtics hit the gold medal with Kristoffer Ajer

Back in February 2016, basketball was waving to sign the Norwegian giant, and it was reported that after a trial spell was conducted by his home country’s club, it was reported that it would cost only £65,000 – a fee that would continue to watch the money they paid for his service.

The young defender started out as a youth player and played five times in the UEFA Youth League in the first half of the 2016/17 season before being loaned to Kilmarnock to gain some valuable experience in Scottish senior football matches.

Ajer returned to the Celtic for the 2017/18 season, with Rodgers entering the canoe in the club’s first spell and becoming a regular first-line player for the basketball team as he continued to play 176 times for the entire spell in Glasgow.

The Norwegian international scored seven goals for Bhoys, winning three Scottish Premier League titles, three League Cup trophys and three SFA Cup trophys, indicating that it was a successful period for him and the club.

In the summer of 2021, Premier League side Brentford signed the centre-back for an initial fee of £13.5m and did not disclose the number of add-ons, which could add it, which means he sold for £2m than Van Dijk, instead of van Dijk including the add-on (excluding add-ons).

This shows that the Celtics won the grand prize with Ajer as they signed their development roster for £650,000, given that he won nine trophys with the Scottish Giants, who then sold nine trophys with a huge profit.

At the time of writing, Transfermarkt is estimated at €18 million (£15 million). This suggests that the basketball team cashed in on him at the initial £13.5 million as his value rose slightly over the last three and a half years, while Van Dijk soared to £7.5 million in a similar time frame.

Rodgers will now hope that he can help current Celtic young people develop and improve so much that they continue to be the next big sale to drive their career to the next level.