Sold at £7m, now a 492 goal "beast": Celtic will rue call on "world-class" 6ft5 "lion" - opinion

Celtic have never been shy when it comes to spending money on new players over the years, with the Parkhead club splashing a significant amount of cash over the years in the transfer windows.

However, one player that was mentioned with a potential move to Celtic Park that didn’t end up coming to fruition was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, someone that they will now undoubtedly be having nightmares over.

In 2016, Gordon Smith recalled a conversation he had with Martin O’Neill back in 2001, during which he recommended the then Celtic manager make a move to sign the Swedish attacker from Malmo for a fee of £2m, only for them to miss out before he eventually joined Ajax for a fee of £7m.

In addition to Malmo and Ajax, Ibrahimovic, dubbed as a “world-class” player by Steven Gerrard, has played for clubs such as AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and LA Galaxy.

Throughout his long and illustrious career, the 40-year-old, who David Beckham called a “beast,” has racked up a total of 492 goals in 810 club appearances across all competitions, showing that the Hoops certainly missed out on a goalscoring phenomenon. In short, they should have taken a chance on him all those years ago.

Standing at an imposing 6 foot 5, the veteran, who has comedically called himself a “lion” on previous occasions, has scored eight goals in 18 Serie A appearances for his current side.

Taking into account what the Sweden international has done on the pitch throughout his career in terms of scoring goals and winning team trophies and individual awards, it’s safe to say that Celtic had a major blunder by not bringing him to the club at the start of his tenure as one of Europe’s elite and iconic figures.

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