BIRGER Meling’s agent, the former Liverpool defender Bjorn Tore Kvarme, last night backed his client, a Celtic signing target, to flourish if he moves abroad to a foreign club this summer, writes Matthew Lindsay.
Meling is set to start for Rosenborg in the first leg of their Champions League play-off against Dinamo Zagreb away in Croatia tonight after helping them beat Linfield, BATE Borisov and Maribor in the qualifying rounds.
And Kvarme stressed the chance to represent the Norwegian champions in the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time was appealing to the 24-year-old.
READ MORE: Why Vidar Riseth believes Celtic will beat off European rivals to sign Birger Meling
However, Eirik Horneland, the Trondheim club’s manager, last week admitted: “Birger will probably move on at some point.” Neil Lennon has admitted he is keen to increase his options at left back.
Kvarme, who played at Anfield for two seasons in the late 1990s before joining Saint-Etienne in France and then Real Sociedad in Spain, now represents Meling.
The former Norway centre half admitted that Rosenborg could be prepared to cash in on the full-back, whose current deal expires at the end of next season, this summer if they receive an offer that matches their valuation.
“Nothing has happened yet,” said Kvarme. “The transfer window in Norway is open until the end of the month.
“He has got one and a half years left on his contract so of course it could be interesting for the club to sell to get some decent money. But they are still playing to get into the Champions League so that may influence things as well.
“In general, it is always interesting for players to go to bigger leagues to play for bigger clubs. You just have to find the right moment. But if Rosenborg get into the Champions League that is interesting for Birger as well. We will have to wait and see what happens.”
Celtic have enjoyed great success with Scandinavian players in recent years with Kristoffer Ajer, Mikael Lustig and Stefan Johanssen all doing well at Parkhead.
READ MORE: How worried should Celtic fans be about AIK's danger men?
Kvarme believes that Meling, the former Stabaek player who has been capped 10 times by Norway in the last two years, has many strengths as a player and could cope with a move overseas.
“I think he can play in a stronger league and at a stronger club,” he said. “He is a good attacking full-back, he can run all day, he has got decent crosses and good technique and he can defend. He is very aggressive as well.
“Moving abroad was definitely a good experience for me both professionally and personally. You grow as a person, but in your professional life it is always good to get new challenges as well.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel