Celtic sign Parma midfielder Oliver Sorensen on season-long loan
On 1 September 2026 Celtic completed the season-long loan signing of Parma midfielder Oliver Sorensen, who will spend the campaign in Glasgow with an option to buy. The move came shortly after assistant manager Shaun Maloney said the club were working on up to four additions before they finalise their Europa League squad on Wednesday.
Sorensen is 24 and joined Parma in August 2025 after five years with Midtjylland in Denmark. Celtic have already announced four first-team signings this summer and have been linked with Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper Sam Johnstone and PSV Eindhoven midfielder Joel van den Berg.
Maloney made his remarks about transfer business before Wednesday's Scottish Premiership visit by Aberdeen and said the club needed reinforcements to replace certain attributes lost with Arne Engels' sale to West Ham United. "There's some key positions that we still need a bit of work on in the next couple of days," Maloney said. "There's certain things that Arne brought that we need to replace and the quicker we do that, it gives us just that extra dimension, extra speed, extra power within that midfield because I think technically we've got some brilliant players. I think we just need that slightly different profile, which we need in certain games."
On the left-back position, Maloney identified a need for competition for Scotland international Kieran Tierney and said the club wanted the right profile to challenge him. "Kieran's started the season really well. You never quite sure how this season's going to go with all the World Cup guys because of such a short break. We need that back-up in that position. We need somebody to keep challenging KT. "That's a position that we've really needed to fill and with the right type. We need the right profile of player in there."
Asked about the possibility of signing 18-year-old Chelsea forward Shim Mheuka on loan, Maloney said "it's pretty difficult to talk about" prospective signings and "nothing's confirmed with anyone". He added: "Any signing in that striker area, it'll either transpire in the next 24, 48 hours, or we'll just go as we are."
Maloney also commented on Japan midfielder Reo Hatate, who has scored 33 goals in 191 Celtic appearances since joining in January 2022, acknowledging the player's contributions. "He's a brilliant player. "What he's done at the club has been really, really good. He's won many titles here. "If he does move on then he'll remember how good a player he was for this club," Maloney said.
The Scottish transfer window closes on Thursday at 17:00 BST and the Europa League squad must be registered by Wednesday at 23:59. "All the guys that we'd be looking to try and bring in, with that European deadline we want to try and get them in the squad if we can," Maloney explained. "We'll be looking to strengthen that squad, particularly European squad for that deadline. "Some really key positions in the squad, you're looking at three or four and, if there's anymore than that, that'll be really, the thinking of the club will be for the future."