Celtic leak details on Iheanacho’s massive wage demands

Kelechi Iheanacho's 'massive wage demands'…

23rd May 2026; Hampden Park, Scottish Cup Final, Celtic versus Dunfermline; Kelechi Iheanacho of Celtic celebrates after he rounds Aston Oxborough of Dunfermline Athletic and shoots and scores to make it 3-0 in the 73rd minute. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

There may be more to the failure to extend the stay of Kelechi Iheanacho, with his reported wage demands coming to light after a discrete crisis management briefing from Celtic to their mainstream media chums.

The 29 year old Nigerian International who scored nine goals for the club last season, signed a three year deal with Turkish second-tier side Bursaspor, after knocking back an offer from the club he helped to a domestic double last season.

It has now been reported by several outlets that Iheanacho was seeking a bumper package just shy of £50k per week, which is way beyond the top earners at the club.

Celtic offered the former Manchester City, and Leicester star a two-year contract despite allowing the automatic one-year extension option to expire at the end of June.

It is being claimed that a deal worth £12,000 per week – rising to £17,000 per week with add-ons – was initially agreed for Iheanacho to remain at Celtic Park before an official contract was signed.

The Nigerian's agent then allegedly stopped responding to phone calls or emails, before returning to the table earlier this week demanding a contract worth a massive £47,000 per week.

Less than 48 hours later, Iheanacho had signed for Bursaspor in Turkey's second division on a three-year deal apparently worth £47,000 per week.

That's a massive amount of money to invest in a player who was seen as something of an 'impact' player last season, and would most likely be thought of in the same manner had he extended his stay in Glasgow.

The club would never sanction that sort of salary for a player, especially one who had his well documented fitness issues. But that won't be of any comfort to the supporters, as it still shows that we are lagging behind when it comes to recruitment, especially when a Turkish second tier side can beat us comfortably when it comes to offering salaries.

Leaking stories to the mainstream media of course is NOT the same as the club speaking directly on the matter. Yesterday Viljami Sinisalo spoke to the mainstream media at Lennoxtown ahead of today's friendly match at Celtic Park but there was curiously no media conference from the Celtic manager.

Martin O'Neill of Celtic FC. Sporting CP v Celtic, Pre Season Friendly, Football, Estadio Algarve, Portugal – 14 July 2026. Photo Zed Jameson IMAGO/ Shutterstock

Maybe just a coincidence.

Celtic had an option that they allowed to expire, running the risk that they could be outbid (in terms of remuneration) for the player if the club did go back to the table after the one-year option expired.

Michael Nicholson told the AICSC AGM on 4th July in Cork that the free agent transfers were the 'easy' ones. Yet he managed to mess this one up and the same goes for Marcelo Saracchi. Credit where credit is due, the Celtic CEO did manage to get the Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain deal across the line.

World class, Michael. World class…

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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