Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers lost one of his key players in the recent summer transfer window when Matt O’Riley left Parkhead.
Brighton & Hove Albion reportedly paid a Scottish transfer record sum of more than £25 million to sign the Danish international.
O’Riley scored 18 goals and assisted 13 times in the Scottish Premiership during the 2023/24 season, attracting interest from others and finally leading to his departure from the club.Rodgers has lost a number of good players at Parkhead, including Moussa Dembele, with whom he struck gold during his first tenure there.
How much did Celtic sell Moussa Dembele for?
Lyon rushed in the summer of 2018 to sign the centre-forward from the Hoops for a reputed amount of £20 million, after he signed from Fulham for an unknown compensation fee in 2016.
Dembele hit the ground running in Glasgow with a sensational debut season for the club. He plundered an eye-catching 32 goals and nine assists in 49 appearances for Rodgers.
His form did suffer, somewhat, in his second campaign at Paradise, though, with a return of 17 goals and nine assists in 39 outings in all competitions.
The French marksman then scored three goals in six games at the start of the 2018/19 season before Lyon secured his services for a staggering £20m fee.
That deal from Celtic has turned out to be a blinder as the 28-year-old marksman’s market value is now millions less than the fee the Scottish giants raked in for his signature.
Moussa Dembele’s current market value
At the time of writing (25/09/2024), Dembele is currently valued at €12m (£10m) by Transfermarkt and this means that his value has halved since his exit from Parkhead.
That is despite his relatively impressive return of 70 goals and 19 assists in 172 matches for Lyon in all competitions during his time with the Ligue 1 club, which included three seasons with at least 15 league goals.
This shows that the French did get plenty of quality out of the centre-forward, as he scored goals on a regular basis for a number of seasons, but they were never able to cash in on him for more than the £20m they spent in 2018.
Dembele went on to struggle in his final campaign with Lyon, scoring three goals in 23 Ligue 1 games during the 2022/23 season, before joining Al-Ettifaq on a free transfer in the summer of 2023.
Dembele endured a mixed campaign with Al-Ettifaq in his first year in the Saudi Pro League last term, with his wasteful finishing.
He scored 12 goals in 25 matches, less than one every other game, and squandered a remarkable 20 ‘great chances’, indicating that the forward did not take advantage of the quality opportunities that came his way.
Overall, Celtic struck gold by selling him for £20 million, since the striker has yet to be sold for more than that amount and is now worth half as much, despite being in what should be his prime years at 28.
