Swiss international confirms Celtic made offer for him

With Joe Hart deciding to retire at the end of last season, Celtic needed to sign a starting goalkeeper in the summer. Fans hoped that the club would bring in someone who could bring long-term stability to the position. But ultimately, the Hoops replaced the Englishman with someone even older than him – Kasper Schmeichel.

Schmeichel has proven a lot of doubters wrong since arriving. He has firmly established himself as the best goalkeeper in Scotland and is still capable of performing at a high level, even at 38 years of age, whether that be domestically or in the Champions League.

That being said, was Schmeichel Celtic’s first choice to replace Hart? We are not sure. One thing that is clear though is that the Hoops had other goalkeepers on their radar as well.

In an interview with Blick, Yvon Mvogo was asked why a transfer did not work out as there were supposedly offers from Parma, Celtic and Augsburg. He replied:

“Yes, there were a lot of offers. They all came relatively early. At that point I wanted to take my time with the decision. I couldn’t have imagined how difficult the market would be during the summer. Many clubs wanted free goalkeepers or ones that could be loaned out. But I had a contract with Lorient, which meant a transfer fee would have been due.”

Swiss international confirms Celtic made offer for him

Mvogo is someone Celtic were indeed linked with early in the summer transfer window. But ultimately, those talks did not lead anywhere. It looks like there had been an offer though.

Ultimately, Mvogo ended up staying at Lorient. It would have been interesting to see if Celtic wanted him as their number one or as someone to compete with Schmeichel. Would the Dane even have been signed if the Hoops managed to bring in the Swiss international?

Whatever may have been the case, in the end, it worked out quite well for Celtic. Schmeichel is performing at an extraordinary level even though he might not be the long-term solution between the posts. On the other hand, they also signed Viljami Sinisalo from Aston Villa, who could possibly be the successor to the Dane.