Brazilian media say Celtic want more than £8m to sell Alexandro Bernabei as the left-back continues to find his feet at Internacional.
A £3.75m signing from Lanus in the summer of 2022, Bernabei struggled to settle at Parkhead and was loaned out to the Brazilian giants in March this year. And after struggling to get a look in for the first three months, he’s come to life in the second half of the Serie A season, scoring three times and registering three assists to make himself a key part of the team. It’s the sort of form that turns heads and the local media are starting to take notice.
Bernabei’s loan deal expires when the Brazilian season ends in December this year and Portal do Colorado claim Internacional want to keep him – but there’s a catch. They say Celtic want as much as €10m (£8.3m), which has effectively priced them out and forced them to look at alternative options.
They add that president Alessandro Barcellos believes that transfer fee is “unaffordable” and that the Hoops’ perceived demands make it “practically impossible”. However they do say Inter “intend to convince Celtic to extend the loan for another season” and as such haven’t given up hope.
The fee mentioned does seem on the high side, and would represent a profit of almost £4.6m on what Celtic paid to sign him in 2022. Any eventual fee, should a permanent exit be negotiated, is likely to be for a reduced figure, somewhere in between the £3.75m Celtic paid for him and the number that is being floated, with conditional add-ons a further incentive. There could also be a loan with a pre-agreed buy option on the table for the 24-year-old.
Bernabei in any case seems unlikely to have too much of an immediate future at Celtic once his loan expires, with Greg Taylor and Alex Valle – on loan from Barcelona until at least the summer – competing for the left-back berth. The South American season running out of sync with the SPFL presents a further challenge, as it begins in April just as the domestic season over here is ramping up, and ends in mid-December.