Jeremie Frimpong leaves Celtic for Bayer Leverkusen

Jeremie Frimpong has completed his move to Bayer Leverkusen, leaving Celtic to join the Bundesliga side.

The 20-year-old has signed a four-year contract with Bayer, who have paid in excess of £10m for his services.

The right-back had left Scotland to hold talks with the German side after telling Celtic he wouldn’t sign a new deal.

Bayer sporting director Simon Rolfes said: “In Jeremie Frimpong we have been able to sign a player with a great facility to develop and this again is a forward-looking transfer for Bayer 04.

“He’s technically strong, incredibly quick and has the desire to go forwards.

“Over the last year and a half, Jeremie has proved himself at an absolute top club in the physically very challenging Scottish league and in European competition. That important experience at Celtic, but above all his footballing ability, make him a very attractive young player.”

Celtic manager Neil Lennon said on Tuesday that Frimpong “made it clear he wanted to leave” the club.

“This hasn’t appeared in the last couple of days, this has been in the background for the last six or seven weeks,” Lennon said.

“The club have made great strides to renegotiate with Jeremie and his representatives but the player made it clear to me, to the board, that he wanted to leave.

“I wouldn’t say he was unhappy, just ambitious maybe or he wanted to try something else to progress his career at another club.

“We got a really robust offer from a club for Jeremie and the club felt it was good business. We do as well from a football side of things and when the player makes it clear he would prefer to play his football elsewhere, that was a decision we all agreed to take.

“That’s football sometimes, when a player makes it clear that he would prefer to go elsewhere then you have to look at it and think is this the right thing to do, is this the right sort of deal for us and ticks all the boxes really.

“We are disappointed to lose him. But he has come in for £300,000 and we could sell him for a huge amount of money but it is credit to the development of the player himself, myself and the coaches and what the club have done for him that a couple of top European clubs have shown interest in him.”

Frimpong had joined Celtic from Manchester City in September 2019.

In a post on social media, Celtic wished the player all the best for the future.