Former Portugal winger Diogo Valente has revealed he turned down the chance to sign for Celtic back in the summer of 2012.
The ex-Porto, Boavista and Braga player revealed that Celtic came in for him following a sparkling season with then Portuguese top flight side Académica.
Valente appeared on the radar of a host of European clubs after forming part of a Académica side that beat Sporting Lisbon to lift the Portuguese Cup for the first time in 73 years.
And now in an interview with Lisbon paper Tribuna Expresso, Valente, who is still playing with lower tier side S.C. Espinho in his homeland at 35, revealed that an offer was on the table to go to Neil Lennon's Scottish Premiership-winning side.
Instead, the 12-times-capped Portuguese U-21 international opted to sign for Romanian team CFR Cluj - the side that sent Celtic crashing out of the Champions League in August last year.
Valente told the paper: "I had a very good season and my manager told me the interest there was for me from Celta de Vigo. There was also interest from Celtic and CFR Cluj.
"They were the best proposals. At Cluj there were a lot of Portuguese players there, I was going to play in the Champions League the following season, they gave me a very good contract.
"But there was Celtic who, in sporting terms, there was no doubt that it was better, a Championship very much like the Premier League, which was a dream that I had, to play in English football, and that unfortunately I didn't do.
"I also had West Ham interested, but the most certain hypotheses were Celtic or Cluj. I ended up choosing Cluj for the financial side, because I was 27 years old.
"I was going to make a three-year contract and at that age playing football in the English league was very difficult."
