The defender’s time at Celtic was crucial in securing a January transfer.
A former Celtic player is leveraging his Parkhead knowledge to get his latest club.
Filip Benkovic spent half of the 2018/19 season on loan with Celtic from Leicester City, impressing in 27 games during Brendan Rodgers’ first season in command, but fitness issues have hampered his career thereafter. Despite having the current Celtic manager as his boss at the Foxes, he was unable to break into the squad.
He joined Udinese permanently in 2022 but was unable to stay fit on an extended period of time, and he has been without a club for the whole of this season. That is about to change, and his Celtic stint is one of the reasons why.
According to Sportbladet, Swedish club AIK is “finalising negotiations with centre-back Filip Benkovic, who can join the training camp in Spain if the final details fall into place.” According to AIK, the defensive player was “a perfect signing as he is experienced and has experience at the highest level, having played for clubs such as Celtic, Leicester, Udinese and Trabzonspor.”
Benkovic will sign a two-year contract as they attempt to finalise a deal. Rodgers viewed the defender highly, saying in 2020, while in charge of Leicester and with the centre-back on loan at Cardiff City: “He needs to play games, and he’s not playing at Leicester right now, and he’s not playing at Cardiff either.
“It’s something where we need to get Filip playing. He needs to get working again and show the level he can play at. Thankfully for myself, I’ve seen the level. When he was with me at Celtic he played against RB Leipzig and he was sensational. Really since that first 10 games at Celtic, he hasn’t maintained a level of fitness and performance that I know he can.
“Hopefully for him he get playing again and if it’s not going to be at Cardiff in the longer term, then we’ll look at it from there.”
