Bellamy enjoyed a successful loan spell with the Hoops during his playing career back in 2005

13:21, 29 Oct 2025Updated 14:45, 29 Oct 2025

The man heading up the hunt for Celtic’s next manager has identified Wales boss Craig Bellamy as one of the leading targets.

Record Sport understands the Parkhead club’s head of football operations Paul Tisdale is drawing up a short list of potential candidates following the shock axing of Brendan Rodgers on Monday night.

And Bellamy has emerged already as a person of considerable interest.

Ipswich Town head coach Kieran McKenna was made the early front runner but we revealed yesterday that it would cost around £5m in compensation in order to plunder the 39-year-old and his backroom staff from Portman Road.

While cash rich Celtic would not necessarily be scared off by such a whopping fee it’s believed a deal to release Bellamy from his contract with the Welsh FA would be more affordable even though it still has three more years to run.

Bellamy, however, would have to be convinced to leave his country in the lurch at a time when they are chasing down a place in next summer’s World Cup Finals.

With just two games to go Belgium are red hot favourites to win Group J after a dramatic 4-2 win in Cardiff earlier this month but Bellamy’s side would be guaranteed a play-off place with back-to-back wins over Liechtenstein and North Macedonia.

Those crunch games take place on November 15 and 18 but if Wales do successfully claim a runners up spot then Bellamy would be expected to hang around to finish off the job in the play-offs in March.

And that would effectively rule him out of contention for the Celtic job despite the arrival of Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney as an interim management team to hold the fort on a short term basis.

Bellamy then would have to be prepared to walk away from his current position in order to make the move back to Glasgow’s east end, where he played under O’Neill during a loan spell 20 years ago in the Irishman’s final season in charge.

O’Neill’s surprise second coming begins tonight when Celic face Falkirk at Parkhead needing a win to keep on the coattails of storming pace setters Hearts.

Celtic interim management team Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neill

But the stand-in boss has already suggested that the club will be looking for a younger, aspiring young manager to take the job on a more permanent basis and Bellamy certainly fits that profile.

The 46-year-old has been widely praised for the work he has done since taking over his national side. He cut his teeth as a coach working under former Manchester City team mate Vincent Kompany at Belgian side Anderlecht.

The pair teamed up for a second time at Burnley where Bellamy was installed as first team coach.

Following Burnley’s relegation from the English top flight – and Kompany’s subsequent departure to Bayern Munich – Bellamy was appointed by Wales on a four year deal last summer.

He got off to a flying start becoming the first Wales boss in history to remain unbeaten in his first four games in charge.

The prospect of a return to the coal face of club football with Celtic, however, could prove difficult for him to turn down in spite of his early successes on the international stage.