Rami Gershon, the Israeli defender who is believed to be on Celtic manager Neil Lennon's January transfer wish list, last night admitted he hopes to quit playing in Belgian.
The international team-mate of Celtic midfielder Biram Kayal is determined to move to another European club and the Parkhead side appear to be close to landing the 24-year-old Standard Liege defender.
Gershon said: "If I get an offer, I will leave. It's very important for me to be playing first-team football. I have been playing in the reserves because I was injured for four months, lost my place in the team and other players got in the side instead of me.
"I have no interest in returning to Israel at this stage of my career. My future will be decided in the winter break."
Dudu Dahan, the player's agent, refused to talk about Celtic's interest, saying: "I do not confirm or deny it".
Celtic have successfully plundered both the Belgian and Israeli markets in recent years. Victor Wanyama was signed from Germinal Beerschot for a bargain £900,000 and they captured Kayal from Maccabi Haifa. They also signed Efe Ambrose from another Israeli side, FC Ashdod.
Gershon was linked with a move to Rangers last July, but the move collapsed because of Standard's high transfer fee demands.
The 10-times capped defender has had loan spells at Kortrijk previously, but is back at Standard and was on the bench last week in a 3-0 win over Germinal Beerschot.Previously, he missed a large part of this season with a knee injury, but is now fit again.
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