CELTIC CONFIDENTIAL: Could the brother of a former Celtic wonder kid make the breakthrough at Parkhead?

The younger brother of Karamoko Dembele has signed his first professional deal with Celtic.

Hassan Dembele, 16, could now be set to follow in his brother’s footsteps in the Parkhead academy.

Back in 2016, Karamoko Dembele attracted huge headlines when he starred for Celtic’s Under-20s team at the tender age of just 13.

Dembele would go on to make his senior debut for Celtic in May 2019, but never managed to nail down a place in the club’s long-term plans.

Despite his obvious talents as a skilful dribbler of the ball, he was eventually moved on to French side Brest and has since enjoyed spells at Blackpool and QPR.

But Hassan Dembele will hope to progress over the next few years and force his way into Celtic’s first-team plans.

Announcing the academy players to have signed contracts, a Celtic statement read: ‘With the 2025/26 season on the horizon, Hassan Dembele, Nathan Meechan, Joseph Haney, Rocco Di Giacomo, Emmanuel Obidiwe, Lucas Clearie and Kayden Daly have all put pen to paper and signed professional terms with the club.

‘For any young player at Celtic, they only need to look at the men’s first team for inspiration to see players like captain, Callum McGregor, James Forrest, Kieran Tierney, Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh and Ross Doohan, all of whom have come through the Academy and graduated into the first-team.

‘Everyone at Celtic Football Club wishes the players all the very best and we look forward to seeing how their careers develop in the coming years with the Hoops.’

A fitting farewell for Lisbon Lion John Clark 

Celtic supporters are being invited to bid a final farewell to the late John Clark when his funeral is held in Glasgow on Friday.

With the cortege set to pass Celtic Park at around 1.15pm, fans are expected to descend on the stadium in large numbers.

The Lisbon Lion, who died last week at the age of 84, will be remembered as a giant of the club.

During a lifetime devoted to Celtic, he served them in a variety of roles, from player to coach, assistant manager and kitman.

Of course, the highlight was that iconic day in 1967 when he was a defensive pillar of the side that won the European Cup.

A shrine of scarves, wreaths and messages has already formed at Celtic Park, where Clark is revered as one of their most popular legends.

His funeral mass will be held at midday in St Mary’s Church. While there will be limited space inside, the service will be broadcast live on the club’s YouTube channel.

Those wishing to pay their respects are invited by the club to gather at the stadium, where the cortege will travel down The Celtic Way.

In a statement, the club said: ‘John Clark was a Lisbon Lion, a cornerstone of our greatest ever team, and a dedicated servant to Celtic across seven decades. This Friday, we come together to honour his incredible legacy.’

Celtic captain is STILL hurting from final flop

Callum McGregor is still hurting from last season’s shock Scottish Cup final defeat to Aberdeen.

The Hoops skipper endured what he described afterwards as ‘the worst moment I’ve ever had in football’ in May after his penalty was saved by Aberdeen keeper Dimitar Mitov in the shootout defeat that denied Brendan Rodgers’ side a domestic treble.

More than five weeks on from his Hampden agony, McGregor is still talking about it...

‘It was a tough moment, there’s no shying away from that,’ the 32-year-old said.

‘I think what that does is it just gives you more motivation to go and achieve even more.

‘It’s the ones that you don’t win that stay with you and fuel the fire for you, so I had a couple of weeks off to digest it and try and find a positive somewhere in it.

‘All it does is it makes me even more hungry to go and be successful and to win even more.

‘I’ve been here a long time, there’s highs, there’s lows and you have to try and find an even keel and keep yourself in a nice balanced headspace.

‘There’s been ups and downs throughout my career and I’ve always managed to bounce back so I don’t see this being any different.’

Taylor's move certainly isn't all Greek...

Greg Taylor’s move to PAOK sees him join a small and relatively undistinguished band of Scottish footballers who have made the move to Greece — but there is one success story he would no doubt dearly love to emulate.

Given one is a left-back and one was a centre-forward, it’s highly unlikely that too many comparisons have been drawn between Taylor and Craig Brewster before now. But hear us out for a minute — a transfer to the Balkan peninsula is not the only link between the two.

Like Taylor, Brewster was an under-appreciated top-flight performer who worked away and eventually proved his worth. Both men had been discarded in their youth — Brewster by United, Taylor by Rangers — before going on to make the most of their second chances in the game, at Forfar and Kilmarnock respectively.

More significantly, both men faced up to the task of filling huge boots on arrival at their significant Scottish football staging posts. Taylor, of course, arrived at Celtic following the departure of Kieran Tierney to Arsenal a month earlier.

Replacing Tierney, a £25million sale and a huge fans favourite, would have been a tall order for a multi-million-pound signing from Serie A, never mind a cut-price acquisition from Kilmarnock. 

While Taylor had made his introduction on the international stage by the time his Celtic calling arrived, many felt that had more to do with his former Rugby Park manager Steve Clarke being in the hotseat than any significant top-level potential. After all, Stuart Findlay and Eamonn Brophy had been handed similar recognition.

But Taylor won over the doubters in the same dogged fashion he applied to his beat on the left flank, to the extent that Rodgers was loathe to lose him despite having secured the return of Tierney on a pre-contract arrangement. 

Should Tierney’s occasionally fragile fitness not hold up on his Second Coming, some Parkhead fans may be casting envious eyes towards the Aegean Sea.

In Brewster’s case, the man he was bought to replace enjoyed a reputation that very few on these shores have ever matched. Duncan Ferguson may have only spent a couple of seasons in the Dundee United first team but his impact was enough to convince Rangers to fork out a record fee of £4million for his services. 

He’d already made a startling introduction to the Scotland national team and appeared to have the world at his feet.

It took Brewster time to fully grasp his second opportunity at Tannadice — scoring the winner against Rangers in the 1994 Scottish Cup final, denying Walter Smith’s men a double treble in the process, certainly helped — and he was 29 when he took advantage of the Bosman ruling to secure a move to Ionikos.

What followed, however, bucked the trend for Scots heading abroad at that time. Brewster clearly took kindly to playing in the sunshine and enjoyed a five-year stint just outside Athens, becoming something of a club legend as his modest outfit competed with distinction in the upper reaches of the Greek top flight.

Brewster wasn’t done there, either, as he returned to Scotland at 34 for a hugely prolific few seasons troubling defenders in the colours of Hibernian, Dunfermline and Inverness, amongst others.

So, five years in the sun, earning accolades and winning the hearts of fans, followed by a return to Scotland to underline an accomplished career? Celtic Confidential reckons Taylor would sign up for that right now.

Oh, and as for those other Scots to have gone Greek? A journeyman Lee Bullen had a Brewster-like spell at Kalamata before returning to high achievement with Dunfermline and Sheffield Wednesday, while Mark Kerr and Steven Tweed fared less well, making only a handful of appearances each at Asteras Tripolis and Ionikos, respectively.

Islam Feruz played once for OFI Crete on loan from Chelsea and the Edinburgh-born Jordan Holsgrove failed to make a single appearance in his time at Olympiakos.