'Calls from Celtic and Rangers' - rivals credited with interest in same player amid transfer claim

Andrej Bacanin has risen to prominence in his homeland with Super League side FK Cukaricki, with the defensive midfielder amassing 17 appearances as he made his senior breakthrough last season.

The club's sporting director, Vladimir Matijasevic, has revealed that he expects the player to depart "in the next 10 days" after fielding interest from the Glasgow rivals as well as Ajax and Udinese.

Bacanin was left out of Cukaricki line-up for their league opener against Napretka on Saturday amid the transfer speculation. The player is valued at around €1.2million, according to football data website FotMob, but a bidding war could see the fee rise.

Matijasevic told the Cukaricki website: “There is a lot of interest in our young players, and currently the focus is on the transfer of Andrej Bačanin.

“He attracted the attention of numerous clubs by playing for our team last season but also for the Serbian national team at his age. We had calls from the Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers, Ajax, Udinese, and some other teams are interested.

“It is possible that some other options will appear, and I expect the transfer to be realized in the next ten days. I expect that this will be another big outgoing transfer of Cukaricki, which would cover the budget of our club.”

Cukaricki have already broken their outgoing transfer record this summer after selling another 18-year-old prospect, striker Mihajlo Cvetković, to Anderlecht for €3.2m.

Meanwhile, Celtic are set to bid farewell to two wingers with Luis Palma’s move to Lech Poznań on the verge of completion after the Honduras international jetted into Poland while Marco Tilio has agreed a loan move to Rapid Vienna which includes an obligation to buy next summer for €1.5million providing the Australian makes 20 appearances.