Celtic’s pursuit of Real Oviedo winger Haissem Hassan is shaping up to be one of the more interesting transfer sagas of the summer window. The Scottish champions submitted a bid of €4 million (roughly £3.4 million) for the 24-year-old, and Oviedo promptly rejected it. Here’s the thing: the Spanish club’s recent relegation from La Liga has fundamentally altered the negotiating dynamics, and both sides know it.

Hassan’s release clause dropped from £16 million to £10 million following Oviedo’s drop to the second tier. Relegation triggered an automatic markdown on the club’s most marketable asset, and now everyone with a checkbook is circling.

The math behind the asking price

Villarreal, Hassan’s former club, holds a 40% sell-on clause from the deal that brought the winger to Oviedo in August 2024. That means for every euro Oviedo collects, they only keep about 60 cents.

At Celtic’s opening bid of €4 million, Oviedo would pocket roughly €2.4 million after Villarreal takes its cut. For a relegated club trying to rebuild, that’s not exactly a war chest. It explains why the bid was swatted away without much deliberation.

Hassan signed a three-year contract with Oviedo in August 2024, so the Spanish side isn’t under immediate pressure to sell from a contract expiry standpoint.

World Cup spotlight changed everything

Born in France to Egyptian parents, Hassan represented Egypt on the global stage and turned heads with his performances, particularly in a standout showing against Argentina. For a player whose market value sits around €3.5 million according to current estimates, a World Cup highlight reel is the kind of advertising money can’t buy.

Celtic aren’t the only club that noticed. Trabzonspor from Turkey’s Super Lig and Egyptian giants Al Ahly have also been linked with the winger.

Celtic are actively searching for attacking reinforcements as the new season approaches, and their willingness to move early in the window suggests genuine urgency rather than speculative interest.

What this means for the deal

A bid in the €6-7 million range would leave Oviedo with roughly €3.6-4.2 million after paying Villarreal’s cut. That starts to look like meaningful money for a second-division club’s summer rebuild.

For Celtic, Hassan represents a World Cup-tested winger still in his mid-twenties whose value has been temporarily deflated by his club’s misfortune.

Al Ahly in particular could offer wages that Scottish football simply cannot match, even if the sporting project might be less appealing to a European-based player.