GLASGOW — In a bizarre turn of events, a former Celtic player has been officially listed as a missing person, not in Scotland, but in the Netherlands. Gustaf Lagerbielke, a defender who joined Celtic in the summer of 2023, was declared missing by the municipality of Enschede, despite having already completed a permanent transfer to Portuguese side Braga.
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A Bizarre Bureaucratic Mix-Up
The strange story unfolded after the Dutch municipality, where Lagerbielke spent the previous season on loan at FC Twente, failed to properly register his departure from the country. As a result, his name appeared on a list of “missing persons” in a local newspaper. The municipality’s statement clarified the situation, explaining that they “do not know where [these people] are now” and therefore “are being removed as residents and are listed as missing persons.”
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The Reality of the Situation
The reality of the situation is far less dramatic than the headline suggests. Lagerbielke, who played 15 matches for Celtic before his loan move to FC Twente, is alive and well. His last recorded “sighting” by the Dutch authorities was on the very day he finalized his transfer to Braga, a detail that further highlights the bureaucratic error at the heart of the matter. The Swedish international is now actively playing for his new club in Portugal’s Primeira Liga.
While the situation has become a source of amusement in both the Netherlands and Portugal, it’s a testament to the complex and often convoluted nature of international transfers. For Celtic fans, it’s a moment of levity after a summer of transfer frustrations and on-field struggles. The club has since brought in new players to bolster their defensive options, but this peculiar incident with Lagerbielke will likely be a talking point for so
me time.
