12 goals in 15 games: Celtic sold a homegrown Engels for just £237k

Celtic’s pursuit of a sixth treble in just nine seasons continues under Brendan Rodgers.

Last Saturday, the Hoops swatted aside Hearts 3-0 at Parkhead; Daizen Maeda scoring a brace, with Jota on target in-between.

This leaves Rodgers’ side 13 points clear at the top of the Premiership, looking to move three points closer to the title when they visit McDiarmid Park on Sunday.

Having also reached the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in 12 years, they’ve certainly had an excellent season, but would this team be even stronger had they been able to keep hold of their “exciting” homegrown talent, a player now similar to Arne Engels?

How Arne Engels’ first season at Celtic has played out

A few eyebrows were raised when Celtic broke their club-record transfer fee to sign Arne Engels from Augsburg on deadline day last summer, paying a reported £11m.

So far this season, the 21-year-old has scored ten goals and provided 12 assists across all competitions, becoming a full Belgian international too, debuting for the Red Devils against Israel in the UEFA Nations League back in September.

Graeme McGarry of the Herland believes the midfielder has ‘huge potential’, while Rodgers hails him as a “young player of real quality”, even if he has, at times struggled to live up to his hefty price tag.

So, could Celtic have saved themselves that £11m by keeping hold of a homegrown talent?

What happened to Celtic’s academy superstar

Rocco Vata, son of former Celtic defender Rudi Vata, joined the club’s academy at the age of seven, impressing at youth level, featuring in the Lowland League, SPFL Trust Trophy and UEFA Youth League.

He made his senior debut for the club at Easter Road against Hibernian in December 2022, before scoring his one and only goal for the club during a 5-0 demolition of Buckie Thistle in the Scottish Cup in January last year.

However, a few months later, following the expiration of his contract, Vata did not renew, instead signing for Watford, with the Hornets paying a £237k compensation fee.

Well, still only 19-years-old, his performances in the EFL Championship have certainly garnered some attention, including from Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout, who believes he has ‘an exciting future ahead’.

Meantime, Conor McEvoy of the Irish Times describes him as ‘electric’, adding that he has been Watford’s ‘most threatening attacking player’ for much of this season, with Tom Cleverley’s team currently ninth in England’s second-tier.

According to Transfermarkt, his value has skyrocketed up to £1m, almost five times what the Hornets paid for him.

This form actually saw Vata earn his first-ever senior cap for the Republic of Ireland last week.

He was introduced by Heimir Hallgrímsson as a second-half substitute against Bulgaria in Plovdiv, choosing to represent the Boys in Green, despite also being eligible for Scotland, Montenegro and Albania; his father won 58 caps for the latter.

So, let’s see how Engels and Vata compare?

The table outlines that, right now, Engles is a better midfielder, considering he comes out on top for all the attacking and passing metrics included.

Nevertheless, Vata has only played a little over 1,000 Championship minutes since making the move down south, and is still only a teenager, two years younger than the Belgian.

Also, the table emphasises that, stylistically, the two players are very similar. That can be seen more closely when you study Vata’s record in the Lowland League last season, scoring 12 times in 15 games, proving they both have a knack for finding the back of the net.

Indeed, the youngster found the net 12 times in 15 games during the 2023/24 Lowland League season.

That underlines the point that Celtic would have been better off, certainly in the long run, had they been able to convince the young Irishman to stay.

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