If Liel Abada does leave Celtic this summer, then they can expect to make a healthy profit on the Israeli.
The winger is claimed to have knocked back a new contract offer from the champions, according to the president of former club Maccabi Petah Tikva. Now Celtic could be set to cash in, with Southampton being linked for a summer move for the 21-year-old. He’s shone since Ange Postecoglou brought him to Glasgow from his homeland nearly two years ago, although hasn't always been a starting regular despite his impressive stats.
With big clubs casting admiring glances from down south, it may make sense to realise his value now with Jota ahead of him in the pecking order and unlikely to be going anywhere any time soon unless someone offers crazy money, while Sead Haksabanovic provides another wide forward option for Postecoglou in addition to Daizen Maeda and James Forrest.
But how much can Celtic expect to fetch for Abada? The CIES Football Observatory have applied a statistical model to work out the estimated transfer values of the top 100 players under 23-years old outside of Europe’s big five leagues, called multiple linear regression (MLR), which assesses transfer value - rather than the vaguer ‘market value’ - from an economic perspective, taking into account length of time left on contract, age and nationality.
Their number crunching has Abada’s estimated value at £17million. That places him 36th in the list, some way off leader Goncalo Ramos of Benfica, who should be asking for £70m for their star striker according to the analysis. Players from Portugal and the Netherlands make up the bulk of those with the highest estimated value, along with a number playing in Brazil.
Abada’s Parkhead teammate Matt O’Riley also features. His estimated transfer value is set at £13million based on the CIES criteria. The midfielder has also been linked with a number of English clubs, but is another who has found himself in and out of the team this season, having previously been one of the first picks under Postecoglou.
Two players previously linked with Rangers also make the list. They've well and truly missed the boat on Xavi Simons, who is likely to go for a fee in the region of £47million when he leaves PSV and is number five on the list.
Abada's compatriot Oskar Golukh is on there too. He's ranked as slightly cheaper than Abada at £15million.
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