At the conclusion of the summer transfer window, the midfielder went on loan to the hoops. In his 30 SPFL Premiership games, he has started 11 of them and made five more appearances off the bench.
Due to Brendan Rodgers’ habit of rotating his midfield trio, Reo Hatate’s injury problems have left a glaring void in the Celtic midfield, but Bernardo and Tomoki Iwata have failed to seize the chance.
Celtic appears to be busy during the off-season. Late on Wednesday night, Portuguese publisher A Bola reported:
Paulo Bernardo’s loan to Celtic is progressing smoothly. The Scottish team is pleased with the 22-year-old central midfielder’s play, and according to A BOLA, it has already signaled to Benfica that it is considering purchasing the player’s pass outright.
The loan agreement negotiated with the Reds’ SAD includes an option to buy €7.5 million for 70% of the transfer until the conclusion of this season. However, Celtic is probably going to wait until the end of the season to try to renegotiate the price.
However, the Scots’ interest is growing steadily more consistent, and in a situation strikingly similar to the one established for Jota, a young striker (also from the Eagles’ formation) who left Luz for Celtic under similar circumstances and with a comparable option value, two seasons ago. stipulated acquisition, and ultimately decided to take a permanent contract with the British team. Jota, who plays for Al Ittihad, departed for Saudi Arabia at the start of the current season.
While Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers established extremely high standards for loan players to meet, Bernardo has so far shown signs of promise without raising enough noise to have Celtic supporters obsessive over their every move after their loan period ended.
Although being a product of the Benfica Academy does ensure a certain caliber of player, Bernardo hasn’t had the same kind of immediate effect as Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate did when they joined Celtic in January 2022 for significantly lower transfer costs.
