FLAVIO NAZINHO: CELTIC LINKED WITH YET ANOTHER LEFT BACK
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
Despite two promising showings from Hayato Inamura, albeit in two 45-minute spells against lesser opposition, Celtic still appear to be very much in the hunt for another left back as cover for Kieran Tierney.
The latest in a long line of potential candidates emerged last night: Cercle Brugge’s Portuguese under-21 star Flavio Nazinho.
Is Flavio Nazinho Celtic’s Answer at Left Back?
As a graduate of Sporting Lisbon’s youth academy, 21-year-old Flavio Nazinho definitely fits the profile of player Celtic look for. He’s young, yet has solid first team experience, a high potential resale value, and, possibly untapped potential in terms of his skill ceiling.
Flavio spent his early years at Sporting, first with their B team and later the first team squad. Unfortunately, he struggled to hold down a first team place, making only 5 appearances, before joining Belgian top flight side Cercle Brugge on a season long loan in 2023.
The Belgians proved shrewd operators in this regard, as they included an option to buy the player for 2 million euros. After an impressive debut season in Belgium, where he cemented his place as the club’s first choice left back, Cercle made the deal permanent in the summer of 2024.
However, it was a tough season for Brugge’s second largest club. They only avoided relegation via a final day play-off, in which Flavio delivered a commanding performance.
This also means no European football for Cercle next season, which means they will need to sell some of their best players possibly including Flavio Nazinho to recoup losses projected to be around 15 million euros.
The player also enjoyed a very successful campaign with Portugal at the European Under 21 championships this summer, with rumors of both Roma and Real Sociedad also interested in acquiring him.
Now, the original source for this story, before it was rinsed and recycled several times through the Scottish mainstream media was in Belgium, which I think lends the story just a tad more credibility than some of the rumors going around lately.
That being said, if either Roma or Sociedad are indeed interested in the player, and I should add that neither has declared any official interest at this time, then Celtic are unlikely to be able to get him.
Also, given Cercle’s well-documented financial predicament, they will be looking to turn a significant profit on the 2 million euros they paid last year for the player.
Do Celtic really want to go to 4,5 or even 6 million euros for a back-up left back? Especially when we might already have one in Hayato Inamura?
I doubt it.
However, there’s no denying that by signing Flavio Nazinho Celtic would be adding a superb talent to our squad. I just don’t see either Celtic spending that much on a back up player.
Nor do I see a player like that willing to leave what is already a decent standard of football in the Belgian league, where he isn’t just an established first teamer, but arguably the club’s best player, to come to Celtic and maybe only start 10-15 games next season.
Unfortunately, this seems like another one of those moves that makes you think “oh, that’s a good idea” at first glance, but then under closer scrutiny you start to see where it probably falls apart.
I will say though, I believe this is an excellent young player, with a big future ahead of him. So, this is one of those times when I would be absolutely delighted for the Celtic board to come out, spend the money, and prove me wrong.
