CELTIC defender Boli Bolingoli has completed a permanent move to Belgian top-flight outfit KV Mechelen.
The left-sided defender joined the Parkhead club from Rapid Vienna in 2019 but struggled for game-time in Glasgow's East End.
An unauthorised trip to Spain during the summer of 2020 shoved the defender further down the pecking order at Celtic, and loan spells at Turkey's Istanbul Basaksehir and Russian outfit Ufa followed.
The loan at Ufa was terminated early due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Bolingoli has now departed Scotland on a permanent deal.
The 27-year-old made 31 appearances in all competitions during his three years at Celtic.
Bolingoli's uncle, Roger Lukaku, previously played for Mechelen but the full-back says he is still to speak with him about his new club.
"I haven't talked to Roger about KV Mechelen yet," Bolingoli told the Belgian club's website.
𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐄𝐑 🖋 I Boli Bolingoli tekende voor twee seizoenen en komt de linkerflank van KVM versterken 💛❤️
— KV Mechelen (@kvmechelen) July 12, 2022
Meer info 👉 https://t.co/GtKClzCuaH#trotsoponzekleuren #Boliisnekakker
"I was just looking for a club where you notice a family feeling. This became clear from the first contact. I want to play back and have fun. That is my first goal at KV."
Mechelen sporting director Tom Caluwe added: "Boli knows what it's like to play under pressure. Club Brugge, Celtic, Rapid, they are all top teams in their league.
"With the extra bonus of playing matches in the Champions League and the Europa League ,he can give us an extra boost both defensively and offensively."
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