THE JOURNEYNAN

Much-travelled Frenchman set for another trip across Atlantic ... as Celts close in on new boss

- MICHAEL GANNON

WILFRIED NANCY looks set to pack his bags and travel across the world into the unknown.

But it won't be the first time for the Frenchman. At least this time, he knows there will be a job waiting for him at the other end.

The 48-year-old is close to sealing a deal to take charge of Celtic and could be in the dugout by the weekend.

And if the move gets rubber-stamped it will be the next stage of a remarkable journey back and forth across the Atlantic since he was a kid.

Nancy has become one of the hottest coaches in the MLS in recent times on the back of his work at CF Montreal and Columbus Crew and that's taken him to the top of the Hoops wish list.

Yet the path has been far from straightforward.

This is a guy who was a top prospect as a teen but ended up shuffling around the lower leagues in France as a senior, skirting the heights of the second tier before drifting down the divisions to the semipro ranks.

But it was a fortnight's holiday in America that set him off in an entirely different direction.

Nancy pitched up Stateside with not much more than a backpack full of his belongings - but had a gut feeling to stick around.

Speaking on the Men in Blazers podcast last year, Nancy said: "I'm laughing, because there's a word I like to use serendipity. I could have stayed in France, having a nice life with friends, at my house, doing some coaching.

"But again, from my parents, because I travelled a lot, I knew that one day I would try to live overseas, to discover new things.