In all the excitement around last night’s European match we never got round to posting about the departure of Amido Balde who earlier this week signed a two-year deal with French second-tier club Metz after being released by Celtic.
The 24-year-old former Portugal Under-20 international was signed by former Hoops boss Neil Lennon in 2013 for £1.8million from Vitoria Guimaraes and his name is added to a reasonably long list of striking flops signed by the club in recent years.
Balde made only 23 appearances – just three of them starts – for the SPFL champions and we have some fold memories including his winning goals against Partick Thistle at Firhill and in a friendly against Liverpool in Dublin. But it was never enough from a player who just didn’t look good enough to play for a club like Celtic. It is hardly the player’s fault that he was signed in the first place!
Last season, he had loan spells with Waasland-Beveren in Belgium and Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel and did not figure in Hoops boss Ronny Deila’s plans.
Balde, who scored three goals for the Parkhead outfit, netted once in 14 appearances for Waasland-Beveren and failed to hit the target for Hapoel in nine games.
Despite his contract with Celtic running until 2017, Balde has been allowed to move to Metz, who were relegated from the French top flight last season.
We wish him all the very best at his new club.
