Fortune agrees terms with Celtic

Nancy striker Marc-Antoine Fortune has agreed personal terms and passed a medical with Scottish Premier League side Celtic, the club confirmed on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old is expected to sign for the Glasgow club in preference to offers from English top-flight clubs Hull, Fulham and Portsmouth.

Nancy agreed a fee of about 3.8 million pounds (six million dollars) with Celtic and Hull for the player who was on loan to West Brom last season.

Fortune arrived in Glasgow on Monday and is likely to be Celtic manager Tony Mowbray’s first signing at the club.

Mowbray admitted that his club were unlikely to be able to match the wages offered by top flight English clubs but hoped Celtic’s stature and the fact that he worked with the French Guianan at West Brom last season would prevail.

“I’ll either be sitting watching him shaking someone’s hand and holding a shirt up somewhere at an English Premier League club, or you will all come back here in a few days’ time and meet the guy yourself,” said Mowbray.

“My advantage is I have worked with him – he knows me as a coach. I know his strengths and weaknesses.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that the English Premier League clubs get 30-35 million pounds each year off their television deals and the Scottish clubs don’t.

“But what I do know is we have a huge pulling power from the support and the history and tradition of this club.

“Believe it or not, there’s a lot of footballers who play for the love of the game as well as the money that goes with it.”

Fortune’s Nancy team-mate, defensive midfielder Landry N’Guemo, is also poised for a season’s loan at Celtic.

Mowbray has been looking for reinforcements after Dutch striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and midfielder Paul Hartley left the club having not been offered new contracts.