Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard receives plaudits

One of this season’s most impressive young players in the Scottish Premiership has been Glasgow Celtic’s 21-year-old Frenchman Odsonne Edouard. After arriving from PSG for 2017/18 season, the youngster made an immediate impact and surprised many. Since then he’s only gotten better for both club and country, and it won’t be long he will get his first senior cap in the French national team as well.

Edouard couldn’t break through to PSG a couple of years back, despite of the potential visible to everyone. He scored 15 goals in 14 games for the French U17 side, four goals in nine games for the U18 team and then five goals in 13 appearances for the U19. Loan move to Celtic was a right choice it seems, as the striker has flourished since joining and already scored 28 goals and assisted on 13 in 58 games for the Glasgow side. Joining the French U21 team only this September, Edouard has taken the international games by storm. His total tally is now ten goals in five games and he hasn’t been scoreless in any. Latest effort saw him finishing off Georgia in European Under-21 Championship Qualifying by a late penalty, handing France their third win in three games.

While Edouard has impressed before, his performance this season has been from another planet. So far he has scored eight goals in 11 games in Scottish Premiership and even more impressively assisted on five. He has taken 106 minutes of playing time to score a goal, which in full season would mean 28 goals. While highly unlikely, Edouard seems to only be getting better and fitting more and more fluently in the system run by Celtic boss Neil Lennon.

Already the bigger clubs are hovering around Edouard and speculation has linked him in return to France or heading to Italian Serie A. His contract with Celtic, signed when the move from PSG was made permanent in the summer of 2018, runs out only in 2022, so Celtic has no need to cash-in for the highly-touted youngster. There’s still a lot to achieve for Edouard in Celtic and the bigger stages can wait – but if he is able to keep up this pace, not for long.

Don’t miss out on Dafabet’s Celtic FC Prediction Challenge in order to win free weekly bets. The Scottish Premiership returns on Saturday 23rd with Celtic hosting Livingston in Glasgow.