Haissem Hassan set for Glasgow medical after Celtic agree fee with Real Oviedo

Haissem Hassan is reportedly set to undergo a medical in Glasgow after Celtic agreed an initial £6m transfer fee, potentially rising to £9m, with Real Oviedo to sign the Egypt winger following his appearances at this summer's World Cup. The move would raise Celtic's summer recruitment to three as the club prepares for a Champions League play-off with LASK.

Celtic have pursued Hassan to bolster a squad Martin O'Neill has said should prioritise quality over quantity after more than a dozen players left since last season's league and Scottish Cup double success. The club view the potential signing as timely with the hugely-important Champions League play-off against LASK looming large. Reports say the transfer would bring to a close a lingering pursuit of the 24-year-old.

Hassan played 126 minutes at the World Cup but used that limited time to boost his profile, appearing as a second-half substitute in Egypt's last-32 penalty shootout win over Australia before producing a standout start against Argentina. He did not feature in any of Egypt's Group G matches after head coach Hossam Hassan later revealed a paperwork delay in registering the former France youth international. In the last-16 match he set up Mostafa Zico's goal after skipping past Enzo Fernandez and delivering a precise cross to put Egypt 2-0 up; his disallowed goal in the same game followed a 60-yard run in which he evaded two challenges before threading a pass to Mohamed Salah, who teed up Zico.

Across his two World Cup appearances Hassan registered nine dribble attempts at a rate of 6.4 per 90 minutes, a statistic that accompanied his increased visibility on football's biggest stage. The 24-year-old is a left-footer typically deployed on the right flank, a profile Celtic have identified as a potential tactical fit.

Born in France, Hassan represented France at Under-17 and Under-18 level before switching his international allegiance to Egypt, his father's birthplace, and making his senior debut earlier this year. His international emergence has followed a club career that began at Chateauroux, where he played for the B team and then the senior side in the lower leagues.

Hassan moved to Villarreal in 2020, featuring for their B team before a loan to Mirandes and then returning to appear in La Liga; another loan to Sporting Gijon kept him in the second tier until a transfer to Oviedo in 2024. He helped Oviedo win promotion in his first season with four goals and three assists, but in La Liga last term he registered three assists and no goals in 37 appearances, 20 of them starts, as Oviedo finished bottom and were relegated. His xG (expected goals) of 0.15 last season was cited alongside Oviedo being the lowest scorers in the division by a distance.

Celtic's recent 5-1 win at Rugby Park, where Kasper Hogh scored a hat-trick and the team's link-up play stretched Kilmarnock, provides context for how Hassan might be used; his left-foot on the right could see him occupy the right-wing while new signing Camilo Duran shifts to the left in place of Yang Hyun-jun. O'Neill has hinted at playing two up top, which would allow a Hogh-Duran front pairing with Hassan supplying the right-sided attacking option, a setup the article likened to the Gordon Strachan era when Shunsuke Nakamura and either Aiden McGeady or Shaun Maloney operated as inverted wingers supporting a central pair of strikers such as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink with Giorgios Samaras or Scott McDonald.

Celtic hope to complete the Hassan signing soon with the player reportedly due in Glasgow for a medical, the initial fee of £6m able to rise to £9m depending on add-ons, and the club aiming to finalise recruitment ahead of their Champions League play-off with LASK.