Celtic 'after' standout Swiss Super League midfielder
The 24-year-old caught the eye while playing for Yverdon in the Swiss top flight last season, scoring four goals and assisting three across 27 appearances.
Eligible to play for both Mali and France, Baradji joined his current club from Legnago last summer.
English Championship side Sunderland are in talks to sign Baradji, claims africafoot, although Celtic, along with FC Basel, Torino, Parma, and Fiorentina, are 'after' the player's services. Baradji is said to be available for €3 million.
Read more:
Celtic have been relatively busy in the transfer market this summer.
Benjamin Nygren appears set to join the Parkhead club, with Nordsjaelland's sporting director recently admitting that replacing a player of his quality won't come cheap.
"When you play with so many young players, and they make their debut on various A-national teams, offers can come in, and that is something we are continuously evaluating," Riget told Tipsbladet.
"Our strategy is always to use our own young talents as much as possible, but if there are places in the team where we can see an opportunity for a qualitative boost while the talents grow, and that it is also in the form of a profile type that can support our own academy players, that is of course something we will look at.
"We are looking for players in different places on the pitch where they can help increase our level and provide more stability.
"For example, we can see that there is great and early interest in offensive, young players, so it is always a good idea if we have a player type like Benjamin Nygren, who has performed well over a number of years and given us stability in the front line.
"In addition to looking for an offensive player, we are also looking at other positions.
"So we will be active in the summer transfer window. It costs some money, but with the right quality we are also ready to invest.
"If something happens, we may have to do something further but the focus will always and will continue to be on creating space and time for the many talents that come up from the academies in Farum and Ghana."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
17 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Alistair Johnston confesses Celtic pressures took mental toll as he reveals 2 solutions to adapting to goldfish bowl
The defender shed a light on the mental aspect of being a Celtic player Alistair Johnston lifted three trophies in a breathless first six months at Celtic. But the Canada right-back admits the whirlwind start to his Parkhead career took its toll off the pitch. The 26-year-old swapped CF Montreal for the Scottish champions in December 2022 and ended his debut campaign as a Treble-winner. Johnston was an instant hit in the Hoops, seamlessly replacing Josip Juranovic and making the position his own. But while fans may have thought he took to life at Celts like a duck to water, Johnston confessed he felt mentally shattered coping with the demands of representing one of Europe's biggest clubs. In a candid interview with One Soccer, the Celtic star revealed how life in the Glasgow goldfish bowl forced him to seek help from a therapist - and even move house to escape the public eye. He said: "It's something that I actually learned as I got to Celtic. It was something that you hear about, you know, it's a fishbowl, all these different things. "You never really truly feel it or can understand or grasp it until you're actually living it. So, I think through about the first six months to a year, I just kind of was taking everything in. And after that, it started to weigh on me. "I could tell performances were lagging a little bit and I just felt like I was a little overwhelmed. "And that's when I actually started speaking to a sports psychologist and they really helped me with understanding, okay, yeah, being out in public in Glasgow is really difficult. It's taxing and understanding that. "And don't feel like you need to constantly put on a face, but understand that, okay, that is when you leave your front door, it's gonna be like that. So, you need to have alternate ways to just completely decompress. "And that's when I decided I was gonna move from a flat in the West End and move out and get a house with a private garden and everything, so that we could have the dog running about and just have a bit more privacy. "And that's something that I learned is that it was those smaller sacrifices, kind of things like that, that made a big difference for me. "Having your own personal space and just finding ways to get away from it. And again, I'm only famous in a 20-mile radius of Glasgow. "I think that's pretty clear. When you come back to Canada, you can walk around. My wife's from America so we go down there for example in the summer. We've got a lovely spot out by the beach, we go out there with the dog and walk around. "It's stuff like that, that can just remind you what you really enjoy in life and that's something I've never struggled with. I don't identify myself strictly as a footballer. That's not even the first word I'd use to describe myself. "So it's really about understanding that and not getting too lost in that fact so when you do get home, you are able to leave it at the door a little bit. "That's something a lot of players struggle with when you get to these big football clubs where the demand's massive and you're in a city where it is non-stop. People live and breathe it. "But it wasn't something that I could easily just flip a switch. It took some time, understanding and talking to some professionals to really grasp what I need to do to be successful." Johnston might be a huge favourite among the green-and-white faithful. But no player is safe from scrutiny. And the defender says he's learned to block out the noise and focus on the job at hand. He said: "I think when you get to one of those clubs, something you don't enjoy winning maybe as much as you should. It's almost more of a relief that you won. "When things are going bad, it can feel like it's the end of the world. I think now, I've really realised that, okay, you pass the ball backwards and the crowd's going to boo. "But at the same time, as long as you're giving everything for a purpose, you can tell them, calm down, it's going to be okay. We're going to get through this. "It's never as good as you think it is, it's never as bad as you think it is. I can be pretty level-headed when it comes to that kind of stuff. "When you're in a fishbowl, it feels like everything is magnified. But you really just need to understand what voices are really important, and which ones should you be listening to and which ones should you shut out." Tune in to Hotline Live every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport's newest podcast, Game On, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.
The National
20 minutes ago
- The National
Tennis hero Nick Kyrgios reacts to surprise Celtic proposal
The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up was recently speaking on talkSPORT about all things football. Kyrgios was most recently a fan of Tottenham Hotspur, predominantly because his fellow countryman, Ange Postecoglou, was in charge. Read more: After his sacking, though, Kyrgios joked he may have to switch clubs. "Half of the reason why I do like Tottenham is because of Ange," said the tennis star. "I am not sure. I think I might have to jump on the Arsenal bandwagon now." Host Alan Brazil then jumped in: "No, no, you go Celtic instead," he said. "Ange had a tremendous time at Celtic. Glasgow. Never mind your Boston Celtics, it's Glasgow Celtic." Kyrgios responded: "Okay, Glasgow Celtic, then I will go for them. I played a lot of FIFA in my time, so I am not sure my supporting cast to Tottenham really meant much, but I will jump on the Arsenal bandwagon [too]." Celtic have a multitude of famous supporters. It was just a few weeks ago that rapper Snoop Dogg outlined his desire to open a burger van at Parkhead. He said [Record]: "The secret to a good burger is the love in the preparation. The ground beef has got to be mixed with some secret spices, then add a good quality cheese and some maple-cured bacon. "The Celtic fans are gonna love it, and to make sure they are just right, Snoop is going to be serving them himself."
Leader Live
30 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Second round of Wimbledon Qualifying like a dream, says Emily Appleton
Appleton defeated Switzerland's Simona Waltert 6-7(4) 6-4 6-3 to move into the second round at the third time of asking after heart-breaking defeats at the same stage in 2023 and 2024. The Chertsey native was a set ahead on both occasions against Canada's Carol Zhao and France's Elsa Jacquemot respectively, only to ultimately fell short. But it was third time's the charm for Appleton, as the 25-year-old held off Waltert to progress into the second round and banish the ghosts of yesteryear. 'It's like a dream,' confessed Appleton. 'I'm just really happy and still trying to process it. I've worked really hard for this and I've had two disappointing matches over the past few years where I was up so to win today was extra special. 'The crowd were great and really getting behind me at the end there so it really helped as well. 'Simona's a really tough player. You never quite know what shot she is going to take and she's a clean ball-striker so it's tough if you let her into the match but I thought I did a good job of being aggressive and playing my game. 'I was just trying to play point by point and not think too much about score or outcome and that seemed to help. Appleton made a bright start to her match against Waltert, racing ahead to a 5-1 lead before the Swiss rallied to take the next five games and eventually the opening set tie-break. But Appleton - currently ranked world No.403 - dug in her heels to ensure that was as good as it got for Waltert, breaking the world No.130 twice in the second and third sets to advance. There, she will face Barbora Palicova after the Czech earlier overcame Argentina's Jazmin Ortenzi in straight sets. And Appleton admits that while she is relieved to finally overcome the first hurdle on the road to the lawns of SW19, her job is not yet finished. She added: 'I'm quite a perfectionist and I can definitely find things to improve on for tomorrow and I'm going to savour the moment and the things that I did well today. 'I've still got to go it do it all again tomorrow. The job's still not done but I'll enjoy the moment right now and move on quickly. 'I don't know my opponent that well so I'll be doing some research tonight and I'm looking forward to it.' For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website
