Just personal terms left as Celtic agree fee for Odsonne Edouard

Celtic have agreed to shatter their club record transfer 
fee as they close in on a permanent deal for striker Odsonne Edouard.

The Scottish champions are understood to have settled on a figure in the region of 
£9 million with Paris Saint-Germain for the 20-year-old who enjoyed a successful loan spell in Glasgow last season.

The deal is now subject to concluding personal terms with Edouard and his representatives. Celtic are hopeful the move can be completed within the next couple of days.

It will comfortably eclipse the previous record transfer fee of £6m spent by Celtic. Strikers Chris Sutton and John Hartson each joined the club for that sum, in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

Edouard would also become the second most expensive signing ever by a Scottish club, behind only the record £12m Rangers paid Chelsea for Tore Andre Flo almost 18 years ago.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has described Edouard as one of the most talented young players he has ever worked with and had made his permanent capture a priority this summer.

Paris Saint-Germain became equally keen to push the deal through, having been warned by Uefa this week they must make player sales worth around £53m before the end of June in order to avoid a breach of Financial Fair Play rules.

Edouard’s season-long loan at Celtic was interrupted by injury but he still made a telling impact, scoring 11 times in his 29 appearances, just 13 of those in the starting line-up.

He endeared himself to the club’s support with the winner for 10-man Celtic as they beat Rangers 3-2 at Ibrox in March, then scored twice when their Old Firm rivals were crushed 5-0 on the day Rodgers’ side clinched a seventh consecutive league title triumph.

Edouard is now poised to become Celtic’s second signing of the summer. A permanent deal for goalkeeper Scott Bain, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Parkhead from Dundee has already been done.

Celtic, meanwhile, confirmed the details of a pre-season trip to Austria to prepare for next month’s Champions League qualifiers. They will play three friendlies, against Vorwarts Steyr on 27 June, Bohemians 1905 on 30 June and Sparta Prague on 3 July.