Celtic were thoroughly beaten by German giants Borussia Dortmund as they lost 7-1 in the Champions League against the Bundesliga outfit on Tuesday night.
The Scottish giants had won their first nine matches of the season in all competitions, including a 5-1 win over Slovan in their first European game, but fell to defeat in dreadful fashion this week.
Brendan Rodgers’ side shipped five goals in the first half, including a hat-trick from Karim Adeyemi, despite bringing it back to 1-1 thanks to a goal from Daizen Maeda early on in the match.
Celtic invested in their attacking options during the summer transfer window in an attempt to compete in Europe, as they swooped to sign Arne Engels, Paulo Bernardo, Luke McCowan, and Adam Idah on permanent deals.
The Hoops reportedly splashed out a club-record fee of £11m to sign Engels from Augsburg and a fee of up to £9.5m to sign Idah from Norwich City, after his loan spell from the Canaries during the second half of the 2023/24 campaign.
Those moves came after Celtic dipped into the market to sign Nicolas Kuhn in January. The German forward came in to replace Liel Abada, who was sold to the MLS.
Liel Abada's time with Celtic
In the summer of 2021, the Premiership giants reportedly spent a fee of around £3.5m to sign the Israel international on a permanent deal from Maccabi Petah Tikva.
It was claimed that clubs from Greece, France, and Belgium were also keen on the 19-year-old attacker but Celtic won the race for his signature ahead of the 2021/22 campaign under Ange Postecoglou.
The teenage sensation quickly showed why so many teams were wanting to sign him. He racked up 15 goals and 11 assists in all competitions in his debut season in Scotland, which included ten goals and seven assists in the Scottish Premiership.
Abada’s output in the final third dropped slightly in the following term, however, as the speedster recorded 13 goals and nine assists in all competitions during the 2022/23 campaign, with zero goals and zero assists in five Champions League outings.
The winger then struggled in the first half of last season, with one goal and two assists in 11 matches under Rodgers, and his manager confirmed that it was a tough time, mentally, for the player amid the hostilities in his home country.
At the start of March, MLS side Charlotte FC swooped in to sign the forward for a reported fee of £10m, which represented a significant profit on the £3.5m that the club had paid for him just under three years previously.
However, things could have been very different for Celtic if they had signed a different winger instead of Abada, as they were reportedly interested in Spanish wizard Rodrigo Riquelme ahead of that transfer window in 2021.
Celtic's interest in Rodrigo Riquelme
In the summer of 2020, it was reported that the Scottish giants were one of the teams interested in a deal to sign the youngster from Atletico Madrid, where he was playing in their B team at the time.
Mundo Deportivo claimed that Celtic and Real Betis both made enquiries about a potential move for the whiz, who was described as a “flamboyant” talent by scout Jacek Kulig, as he was set to become a free agent the following summer.
Atletico wanted to extend his contract with the LaLiga side but the Hoops, and Real Betis, were seemingly lurking in the hope that they could convince him to ditch his current club on a free transfer in 2021.
Premiership rivals Rangers had also been linked with the winger and it was suggested that one option could have been for him to sign a new deal with Diego Simeone’s team before going out on loan to Scotland.
Unfortunately, however, the attacking midfielder eventually opted to put pen to paper on a new long-term contract with Atletico Madrid, where he remains in the current day, and Celtic missed out on a chance to land him on a free – or at least for compensation – in the summer of 2021.
The Hoops did not sign an out-and-out winger in 2020 but did move to sign Abada to strengthen their options on the flanks in 2021, when Riquelme could have arrived if he had not extended his deal with the Spanish giants.
Rodrigo Riquelme's current market value
At the time of writing (03/10/2024), Transfermarkt has his current market value at €25m (£21m), which is significantly more than the £10m Celtic raked in for Abada from Charlotte earlier this year.
It is also a staggering £19m more than the £1.9m he was valued at by Transfemarkt in the summer of 2020, amid Celtic’s initial interest in signing him. This shows that the Scottish giants missed out on the opportunity to sign a player with the potential to grow in value even more than the Israel international did during his time in Glasgow.
Riquelme went on loan to Bournemouth in England during the 2020/21 campaign and scored two goals in 19 appearances in all competitions for the Cherries, before an impressive haul of seven goals and 12 assists in LaLiga 2 for Mirandes on loan the following season.
Starts
25
Goals
4
Big chances created
7
Key passes
34
Assists
4
As you can see in the table above, the Spaniard then joined Girona on loan in LaLiga and showcased his creative quality in the top-flight, with seven ‘big chances’ created in 25 starts.
His form for Girona earned him a place in the first-team squad at Atletico for the 2023/24 campaign and the 24-year-old star created ten ‘big chances’ in 17 LaLiga starts for Simeone’s side last term.
The right-footed magician, who played against Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday night, has proven himself to be an incredibly creative attacking midfielder, who can play centrally or out wide.
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Celtic may rue missing out on a deal to sign him, landing Abada instead in 2021, as his career has gone from strength to strength, and he is currently worth more than twice as much as the Charlotte forward.