Dunfermline Athletic are delighted to announce the loan signing of attacking midfielder Ben Summers from Celtic.
A regular for the U18s and Celtic B, Ben has been at Celtic from the age of seven. He made 22 appearances for Celtic B last year, while scoring five goals, he also started every match in their Uefa Youth League campaign.
He today signed a new contract with the Glasgow side until 2026. He has also represented Scotland at U21 level. Ben will wear the squad number 16
Dunfermline Athletic manager James McPake commented:
“He’s an exciting young player that i’ve seen a lot of from Celtic B. Ben also spent time around the Celtic first team last season and made a couple of appearances, which is testament to how highly thought of he is. We’re delighted to get him in and start working with him ahead of Saturday’s match. I’d also like to thank Celtic and Darren O’Dea for helping with the loan agreement.”
Ben demonstrated his potential to Ange Postecoglou last season when training with the Celtic first team and James added:-
“He’s a very good player, technically excellent, but he’s also got a bit about him. Just to train every day with them in that environment is great. That doesn’t guarantee you anything when you go to first-team level, whether that’s Celtic or us. I saw an interview with Ange when he said that nobody gets a debut or anything under him unless it’s earned. He made a couple of appearances off the bench and was on the bench in other games.
“Celtic have got a very good B team and they do well, but they’re desperate to get players out and playing proper football and into the first-team. When I had the conversation about Ben last year, Celtic were desperate to hold onto him because they believed he was going to break through – and that proved to be right.
“So, the year training with that first-team and being in that environment, as much as he hasn’t played much men’s football, will have developed him. Now, it’s up to him to come out and do well in a first-team environment. He’s got ambitions to go on and play for Celtic and Celtic have got high hopes for him to be a Celtic player. So, this is the first step in his career away from Celtic now to prove that he’s good enough to play first-team football and then kick on from there.”
Described as an attacking midfielder Ben was more attacking when James first saw him.
“He’s got lots to the game and that’s been developed over the years at Celtic. He played in the number 10 role, and then in the system they adopted under Ange Postecoglou he became an eight or a wide man.
“He likes to get goals, he likes to take shots on, and he has got very clever feet and a great footballing brain for someone so young. I can see why Celtic were so desperate to keep him and expose him to the first-team environment. I’m just glad we could get him out because he’s an exciting one for the football club and for me, he’s certainly one who will come in and add to our group.”
