Celtic's fascination with the Far East continues apace. Following in the footsteps of Shunsuke Nakamura, Koki Mizuno, and Du Wei, and arriving four months ahead of Ki Sung-Yong, is Zheng Zhi.

Celtic's fascination with the Far East continues apace. Following in the footsteps of Shunsuke Nakamura, Koki Mizuno, and Du Wei, and arriving four months ahead of Ki Sung-Yong, is Zheng Zhi.

The captain of the Chinese national side should complete the formalities on a two-year deal in the coming days and will become Tony Mowbray's final signing of 2009.

Celtic have shown to be shrewd operators in this market in the past. Nakamura, who left this summer for Espanyol after four seasons in Scotland, proved to be a huge success both on and off the park. His goals and creative wing play helped bring about league titles and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League, while off the field he helped build the brand in his native Japan and enabled Celtic to shift a substantial amount of merchandise to an enthusiastic, materialistic fan base.

Ki, the South Korean, will arrive in January from FC Seoul as another rising star Celtic hope can perform on the field and help develop commercial opportunities off it.

It is a ploy, though, that does not pay off every time. Mizuno remains at Celtic Park but so far has been unable to emulate the achievements of his countryman Nakamura, while Du was an unmitigated disaster on the playing front. The Chinese defender lasted just 45 minutes on his debut against Clyde in the Scottish Cup and was never seen again.

That failure has not put Celtic off and this time there will be no assimilation worries to contend with for the latest Chinese signing. Whereas Du had no prior experience of European football, Zheng arrives at Celtic after a successful two-year stint at Charlton Athletic, during which time Mowbray tried to sign him for West Bromwich Albion.

Mowbray, then, has finally got his man, and on a free transfer too after the player failed to agree a contract extension with Charlton.

While Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, and the rest of the board will be keen to exploit the player's marketing potential - and quite rightly so in these difficult financial times - Zheng's nationality will matter little to the Celtic supporters who will only care about the his ability and whether he will enhance Mowbray's side.

Chris Iwelumo is in little doubt that he will. A former team-mate of Zheng's during their time together at The Valley, Iwelumo's only note of disappointment is that the Chinese internationalist will not be joining him at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

"He's got everything," the Scotland striker told The Herald. "He's different class and a really talented guy. He scores goals, he's technically very gifted, and he's also a very strong character. It seems to be a fantastic piece of business by Celtic and the fact that he's the captain of a nation like China shows what a talent he is.

"We got on really well together at Charlton. I was a bit surprised to hear he had turned up at Celtic as I know that Wolves were definitely interested in him and it would have been good to have teamed up with him again."

Zheng will arrive primarily as an attacking central midfielder but is sufficiently versatile to operate in a number of roles.

"He can play in quite a few positions," added Iwelumo, who hopes to return later this month from the metatarsal injury that will keep him out of Scotland's forthcoming double header against Macedonia and the Netherlands. "He played up front beside me and scored goals. He played in central midfield and scored goals, and he played just behind the front two and scored goals. So you get the idea. He can also play in central defence if required so he's quite a useful guy to have around."

Zheng began his career at Liaoling Chuangye before moving on to Shenzhen Jianlibao, the Chinese club with whom Rangers ironically had a tie-in a few years ago. From there he spent two years on the books of Shandong Luneng before arriving on trial at Charlton in November 2006, remaining on loan until the end of that season and making his debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

He returned to Charlton on a permanent deal in August 2007 for a fee in the region of £2m where he stayed until the summer when his contract was not renewed after the London club were relegated to League One.

After all that experience, Iwelumo believes Zheng will have no problem settling into the frenetic life of an Old Firm player in Glasgow.

"He's a very good professional. He eats right, he lives right, and he looks after himself. His English was also good so that shouldn't be a problem either. I can't really see any problems for him."