Celtic join the race to sign former Real Madrid striker

Reigning Scottish Premiership champions Celtic have reportedly joined the race to sign Elche centre forward Alvaro Rodriguez.

Sports Witness reported that 'Celtic are among the clubs chasing Elche CF’s Alvaro Rodriguez', but the 21-year-old is highly sought after and the Hoops will face a battle to secure his signature.

Premier League duo Bournemouth and Hull City are attentive to the striker's situation, while TuttoMercatoWeb journalist Pietro Celeste took to X to confirm that Bologna are among the Serie A teams keen on signing him.

Celtic have confirmed that 74-year-old Martin O'Neill has signed a one-year contract at the club with a one-year option to extend, and while the Glasgow-based outfit clinched a fifth successive Scottish Premiership title in the 2025/26 campaign, there's a glaring need for attacking reinforcement ahead of next term.

Despite their success in the 2025/26 campaign Celtic failed to score 75 goals in a top-flight season for just the second time since 2009/10, unable to rely on a consistent source of goals up front.

Daizen Maeda's form in the post-split fixtures, scoring seven times in five fixtures, ultimately proved to be enough to get them over the line, but a record of just seven goals in 31 prior Scottish Premiership contests left much to be desired.

Kelechi Iheanacho, Junior Adamu, Sebastian Tounekti and Johnny Kenny were amongst the forwards who failed to make a sizeable mark on Celtic's season, and so their search for a new number nine is hardly surprising.

Elche's Rodriguez emerged through the Girona academy, before making the switch to Real Madrid's youth setup in 2020. Rodriguez, who has represented both Spain and Uruguay at youth level, enjoyed four seasons with Los Blancos' reserve side, where he scored 21 goals and recorded nine assists in 79 fixtures.

He made his senior debut for the Spanish giants on 3rd January 2023 in a 1–0 Copa del Rey victory over Cacereno, later featuring on six occasions in the latter stages of the 2022/23 La Liga campaign.

After a relatively underwhelming loan spell with Getafe, scoring just two goals in 22 top-flight outings, Elche took a punt on the striker for a reported €2.5m, and he's arguably paid that back in his debut campaign at the club.

Rodriguez scored seven times and recorded five assists in the 2025/26 La Liga season as Elche avoided relegation to the second tier by just one point, and a standout campaign has seemingly drawn the interest of various European suitors.

Real are reportedly entitled to 50% of the transfer fee should Elche opt to sell him, which could drive the centre forward's price up - especially in the event of a bidding war.