Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers made a host of changes to his first-team squad during the summer transfer window by making a number of signings.
The Hoops moved to sign Arne Engels, Adam Idah, Alex Valle, Paulo Bernardo, Kasper Schmeichel, Viljami Sinisalo, Luke McCowan, and Auston Trusty to bolster the group.
Academy players can sometimes make the breakthrough to alleviate the need for new additions but, for Celtic, they ended up losing two prospects in Daniel Kelly and Rocco Vata, who joined Millwall and Watford respectively.
They are hardly the first Hoops prospects to move on from Parkhead after showing initial promise at academy level, as the Scottish giants once had a starlet who was compared to Lionel Messi.
The Celtic starlet compared to Lionel Messi
Coach David Feeney worked with this particular young talent in his teenage days and claimed that the forward was “very similar to Lionel Messi” and that “the sky is the limit” for him.
As a slight, left-footed, midfielder who can play out wide on the right or centrally, the comparison to Messi made sense from a stylistic perspective.
The coach added that he was left “astounded” by the “fantastic” youngster and that he was convinced that the player would go all the way to the top in his career.
That player, you may have guessed it, was former Celtic academy starlet Karamoko Dembele, who had just made his U20 debut at the age of just 13.
The young whiz, who had joined the academy in 2013, eventually went on to make his debut for the club, as shown in the clip below, at the age of 16 against Ross County in the 2018/19 campaign.
He went on to score one goal in ten appearances in all competitions for Celtic, as the youngster failed to establish himself as a regular under Neil Lennon or Ange Postecoglou, before being released for nothing by the Hoops in the summer of 2022.
Where Karamoko Dembele is now
The winger was snapped up by Reims on a free transfer ahead of the 2022/23 campaign and he failed to provide a single goal or assist in 15 Ligue 1 games that season.
First Impressions
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He was then sent out on loan to Blackpool in League One in England and enjoyed a breakout season at senior level in the third tier down south, with a return of eight goals and 13 assists in 39 appearances.
Dembele was not given a second chance at performing in Ligue 1 by Reims, though, as he was sent out on another loan for the 2024/25 campaign, to Queens Park Rangers in the Championship.
Appearances
9
Goals
1
Big chances created
2
Assists
3
Key passes per game
2.2
As you can see in the table above, the now-21-year-old forward has had a solid start to the season, with four direct goal contributions in nine appearances.
However, Dembele is some way away from nearing Messi’s return of 743 goals and 356 assists at club level in his career, so it is doubtful that he will ever live up to that comparison, just as the youngster – unfortunately – never lived up to his potential during his time at Parkhead.
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