Aston Villa star Mahmoud Trezeguet has revealed how he could have been a Celtic player if the Parkhead side had stumped up the cash six years ago.
The 26-year-old moved to the Midlands side in an £8.75 million move from Turkish side Kasimpasa three years ago.
He moved to Turkey from Anderlecht who he signed for in a permanent deal following a successful loan spell from Al Ahly.
It was around the time of his move to Belgium that Celtic had expressed an interest but wouldn’t pay the £3.5 million Anderlecht paid, according to the midfielder.
He said: "When I decided I was going to go to Europe, there were a lot of clubs who were interested.
"One of them was Celtic and I was going to sign for them, but the deal was never completed because of the poor financial compensation the Scottish club offered Al Ahly.
"Instead, I ended up signing for Anderlecht instead. They made an appropriate effort to sign me on loan with the right financial outlay and I signed for them permanently eventually.
"That move didn't really work out for me and I ended up joining Mouscron on loan and then had a choice whether to move to Aston Villa or clubs in Italy and I am pleased I chose to go to England.
"But I could have been a Celtic player before then.”
