CELTIC are in the hunt for Senegal star Kara Mbodj, who plays for Alex McLeish's Racing Genk.
The Hoops are looking for reinforcements next month after a stuttering start to Ronny Deila's first season in charge.
And 25-year-old international Mbodj, who can play as a defender or a holding midfielder, has been targeted.
But Celtic will face competition from England too with Crystal Palace and West Ham also credited with an interest in the 25-year-old.
Deila knows Mbodj well because he played for Norwegian side Tromso for two years, with the current Hoops boss encountering him plenty times when he was in charge of Stromsdgodset.
Mbodj said: "I can confirm British clubs are showing interest in me.
"But I don't want this to distract with my focus which is to get Genk as high up the league as possible.
"In January we will talk to these clubs and I will make a decision on my future then."
Mbodj has helped transform McLeish's side from relegation contenders to European place hopefuls in the Belgian Pro League.
And Celtic will look at the talented African closely in winter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article