Bologna finally confirm Hickey’s monster move
● Club announce deal with footage of Loch Ness and bagpipe music
Bologna have finally confirmed the signing of Aaron Hickey from Hearts for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £1.8 million.
The protracted deal was announced by the Serie A club yesterday, with the 18-year-old moving to Italy on a long-term deal.
Hearts are set to net over £1m, with Celtic due 30 p er cent of the transfer fee due to a sell-on clause inserted when they Parkhead club released the player from their youth programme.
Hickey’ s arrival was announced by Bologna in a humorous video featuring footage of Scotland and what appeared to be Loch Ness. It cuts to the player holding a dinosaur figurine, re presenting the Loch Ness monster, with Hickey telling fans: “Believe me, I am real ”. The video is accompanied by bagpipes.
Hickey will be the first British player to play for the Italian side after they won the battle for his signature, despite strong interest from Bayern Munich. He was also linked with Celtic and a host of Premier League clubs.
Bologna announced the signing with the statement: “The first British player in Bologna’ s history, Hickey is a two-footed player, who has just finished a rather promising season at left-back with Heart of Midlothian F C. A technically gifted player, he has great close control, is adept and progressing play up the pitch with a good range of passing and loves to get forward and join the attack.
“He joined Heart sin 2018 from Celtic’ sac a de my and made his de but in the top flight of Scottish football at the age of just 16. Last season, he played in 22 of the Jam Tarts’ matches and even scored a fantastic goal at the club’ s arch-rivals Hibernian. His performances put him on the radar of numerous top sides in Europe, and now, as of September 2020, he joins the Rossoblù on a permanent basis.”
Hickey, who will be managed by Siniša Mihajlović, could be in line to make his debut on Monday against Parma with first-choice left-back Mitchell Dijks suspended after being sent off in the season opener against AC Milan.
It has been a meteoric rise for the player. He made his debut aged 16 at the end of the 2018/19 season, doing enough to convince Craig Levein to start him in the Scottish Cup final where he impressed against Celtic.