The English giants join the long list of admirers for Celtic’s striker who has taken the world by storm with his goal-scoring exploits.
The highly rated 20-year-old Moussa Dembele has already scored an incredible 15 goals in 21 appearances for the Scottish club, including a brace against Manchester City in the Champions League, and averaging an impressive rate of 96 mins per goal.
No wonder all the tops club in the world want to have their hands on the young striker, who joined Celtic on a four year contract from Fulham for a mere £500,000 this summer.
One does wonder how a talent like Dembele could have slipped through the attention of top European clubs in the summer, after all he had proven himself in the Championship with Fulham, scoring 17 goals in all competitions in 2015-16, then aged only 19.
As it turned out, Fulham’s loss was Celtic’s gain, with the player really finding himself under the tutelage of former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.
And now, Manchester United have been alerted to his talent, reports English daily publication Daily Mail. The outlet believes the Manchester based club had sent scouts to have a look at Moussa Dembele in action on Wednesday.
The match in question is Celtic’s trip to Ross County’s Global Energy Stadium for their 11th league match of the season. Demeble didn’t start the game, but was introduced in the 58th minute and ended up scoring Celtic’s fourth goal in a 4-0 win, a result which extends their lead at the top by seven points.
The report comes just days after Zinedine Zidane admitted to being a huge admirer of Moussa Dembele, even comparing him to the likes of Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Raul for his knack of scoring crucial goals. The young Frenchman had scored a late winner in the Old firm derby at the weekend.
Manchester United’s current strike-force consists of two players (Zlatan and Rooney) around and over the age of 30, with Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford preferred to be deputed wide by manager Jose Mourinho.
Compouned by both Zlatan and Rooney’s spell of poor form, an approach for Dembele wouldn’t be surprising, as he would provide the perfect blend of attacking flair and young legs to the front-line with support of more experienced players in Rooney and Zlatan to aid him.
However, Zidane urged Dembele to stay put at the club, stating, “I do understand now that the biggest clubs in Europe are being linked with him and that will be his destination eventually – but my advice for now is to ignore it and continue to develop at Celtic, a great club, and under a very good coach.”
The Real Madrid manager has a point as it would indeed be little premature for Dembele to move, as the ideal option for now would be to continue his progress at Celtic; a club who provides him with the perfect environment to grow.
