{"id":469903,"date":"2019-06-29T10:47:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T14:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=469903"},"modified":"2021-03-17T19:11:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T23:11:59","slug":"luca-connell-celtic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2019\/06\/29\/luca-connell-celtic\/","title":{"rendered":"Luca Connell Completes Transfer to Celtic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Celtic have signed talented midfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/875cbc84\/Luca-Connell\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luca Connell<\/a> from Bolton Wanderers on a four-year deal. The Trotters held out to secure a fee for their academy graduate.<\/p>\n<h1>Celtic Complete Capture of Luca Connell<\/h1>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\udd95\u270d\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WelcomeLuca?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WelcomeLuca<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Highly-rated Republic of Ireland youngster, Luca Connell, signs for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CelticFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CelticFC<\/a> on a four-year deal. Welcome, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lucaconnell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@lucaconnell<\/a>! \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddea<\/p>\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RXj5T7EK0p\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/RXj5T7EK0p<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9NRhzpodcE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/9NRhzpodcE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CelticFC\/status\/1144878899513438208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>18-Year-Old Luca Connell Makes Move to Scotland<\/h2>\n<p>Connell broke into the Trotters&#8217; first-team in January and made twelve appearances as Bolton were relegated to League One.<\/p>\n<p>It had seemed at one stage that a dream move to Parkhead for Connell would collapse. The midfielder had a request to terminate his scholarship contract rejected by Bolton&#8217;s administrators.<\/p>\n<p>However, Celtic strode forward with a legal challenge which forced Bolton to accept that they would lose the midfielder.<\/p>\n<p>Having been with Bolton since the age of nine, Connell&#8217;s move north of the border raised confusion regarding the fee that Celtic would have to pay.<\/p>\n<p>A development fee of \u00a3250,000 had been predicted; however, Marc Iles at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/sport\/17738632.celtic-wrap-up-signing-of-boltons-luca-connell-with-generous-fee\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Bolton News<\/a> reports that Celtic agreed to match the fee that Bolton would have received had Connell opted to sign for an English side.<\/p>\n<p>A statement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bwfc.co.uk\/news\/2019\/june\/statement-from-the-joint-administrators\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">released by Bolton<\/a> said:\u00a0&#8220;We took legal advice once Luca submitted his notice of termination.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However, the discrepancy in the regulations between England and Scotland meant we had no option but to accept the situation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To their credit, Celtic recognised that and have agreed to pay substantially more than the financial obligations in Luca&#8217;s contract.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Celtic TV (via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-transfer-news\/luca-connell-signs-celtic-youngster-17276158\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daily Record<\/a>), Connell said:\u00a0&#8220;It&#8217;s unbelievable to sign for such a massive club, known all around the world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a dream come true, what you dream of as a kid.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The stadium is unbelievable, I don&#8217;t think I can even imagine what it&#8217;s going to be like when it&#8217;s full.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hopefully I&#8217;ll be playing out there in front of the crowd &#8211; I can&#8217;t wait.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Connell is set to link-up with Ireland&#8217;s under-19s in Armenia at the European Championships this summer.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"j24yMh7cTNt6t0_hUFGcYA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1138738386\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'j24yMh7cTNt6t0_hUFGcYA',sig:'9Sk29LIeNVSGgBKU_0gOX6ky8vD7tuwtkHGUvBHuEeY=',w:'594px',h:'418px',items:'1138738386',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celtic have signed talented midfielder Luca Connell from Bolton Wanderers on a four-year deal. The Trotters held out to secure a fee for their academy graduate. Celtic Complete Capture of Luca Connell \ud83c\udd95\u270d\ufe0f #WelcomeLuca! Highly-rated Republic of Ireland youngster, Luca Connell, signs for #CelticFC on a four-year deal. Welcome, @lucaconnell! \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddea \u27a1\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/RXj5T7EK0p pic.twitter.com\/9NRhzpodcE &mdash; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3040,"featured_media":469937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8428,34,8427,28],"tags":[113,375,188,3925,3924,136],"class_list":["post-469903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-celtic","category-league12","category-scottish-premiership","category-transfers","tag-bolton-wanderers","tag-celtic","tag-league-one","tag-luca-connell","tag-scottish-premier-league","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}