Celtic in transfer u-turn as they go from telling club 'no chance' to selling lucrative asset for record price

Charlotte FC have claimed Celtic changed their tune from absolute no to yes over the sale of winger Liel Abada.

The star joined the MLS side earlier this month after Brendan Rodgers claimed he was not in the right frame of mind to play for the Premiership champions, amid the war in his native Israel with Hamas. Soccer Sheet have claimed a record-fee in the region of $8 million (£6.2m) has been paid, which bursts the previous fee of $6.3 million for Enzo Copetti.

Charlotte FC general manager Zoran Krneta has confirmed to the outlet that it's their biggest for now, and that because of the circumstances that have unfolded, they have been able to change Celtic's tune from no sale under any circumstances to approval He said: "He will help us win games. He has a fantastic record for 22-years-old.

"This is a 22-years-old talented prospect from Europe coming to MLS. It’s very rare that you have a top European talent coming from Europe to MLS. Usually it is the other way around, or you get a older talent [at the end of their career] coming to MLS. From that perspective, I think this is huge for us.

"To be honest, [without] some of the circumstances, I don’t think we’d be able to get him as easy from Celtic. We’ve known [about] him for some time, we made the request and approached Celtic about a year ago about him, and they categorically said ‘no chance.’ So I think this was a one-off situation that we could not miss."