Celtic target £8.5m striker as Harry Kewell exit on cards amid links to managerial vacancy

Reported Celtic target Mathias Kvistgaarden in action for Denmark during a UEFA U21 Euro 2025 qualifier against Wales last month. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Danish youngster linked with January move to Celtic Park as J-League club targets Kewell for manager’s job

Celtic will reportedly reignite their transfer interest in Danish striker Mathias Kvistgaarden in the January transfer window but will need to be a hefty price to land him amid competition from across Europe.

The Scottish champions were previously linked with a move for the 21-year-old Brondby forward in the summer with clubs in England, France and Germany also said to be keeping tabs on the youngster.

Kvistgaarden has scored five goals and registered seven assists for his club so far this season and has also netted four times in 10 appearances for the Denmark Under-21s.

Manager Brendan Rodgers is keen to reinforce the Celtic striking department due to the prospect of losing top scorer Kyogo Furuhashi, fellow hitman Oh Hyeon-gyu and forward Daizen Maeda in the new year due to their potential participation in the Asian Cup. Furuhashi and Maeda are expected to be called up by Japan manager Hajime Moriyasu, while Oh is part of Jurgen Klinsmann’s South Korea set-up.

The tournament in Qatar, which begins on January 13 and finishes on February 10, coincides with Celtic’s return to domestic action after the winter break on January 20. With Furuhashi, Oh and Maeda being Celtic’s principal options in the central striking role, Rodgers does not want to be left short in that area of the pitch, while also wanting to have further options in attack.

According to Danish outlet Tipsbladet, a move for Kvistgaarden could be in the offing, but that it could take a transfer fee of around £8.5m to make the deal happen in January, which is close to the record £9m Celtic paid PSG for Odsonne Edouard in 2018.

They wrote: "I know from good sources in Scotland that Celtic are back on the pitch. Kvistgaarden is also on the candidate list in the Bundesliga and a little further down the field between the bottom of the Premier League and the Championship as well as in France. I fully understand that Brøndby has no intention of letting Kvistgaarden go cheap.

"They will then go after their 75 million kroner, 10 million euros (£8.5m), a nice round number, in the work to get higher up the sales hierarchy in the top of the Superliga. It is expensive for a player in January, but in the right club, Kvistgaarden will also be a gain with his ongoing style."

Meanwhile, Celtic could be set to lose first-team coach Harry Kewell amid reports he is wanted to become the new manager of Ange Postecoglou's former club Yokohama F Marinos.

Their current manager, former Rangers defender Kevin Muscat, has announced he is to step down and take a break from football management having narrowly missed out on the Ibrox job to Philippe Clement two months ago.

And according to Japanese outlet Sponichi, Kewell has emerged as the top candidate to become the J-League outfit's new manager. with negotiations said to be progressing smoothly.

Kewell, the former Leeds, Liverpool and Australia winger, was appointed to the Celtic coaching staff by Postecoglou in the summer of 2022.