CELTIC have been linked with Sunderland striker Josh Maja over the last few days as the club press on with their January transfer activity. Vakoun Issouf Bayo joined from DAC 1904 for £2 million, and Timothy Weah and Oliver Burke have been recruited on loan until the end of the season. The cases of Weah and Burke are clearly short-term, given the nature of their respective deals, and now Brendan Rodgers is reportedly looking to the future for his next signing.

At 20 years old Maja comes across as an option for the future, as opposed to someone expected to make an immediate impact at the club. With just six months remaining on the striker’s contract, Celtic would most likely sign the forward on a pre-contract to avoid shelling out a transfer fee for Maja. As the deal would qualify as an international transfer, any compensation fee Celtic would have to pay would be nominal, compared to what another English side would have to pay.

But who is Josh Maja, and how would he fit into Rodgers’ side? We’ve taken a look at the young Englishman’s numbers to see what Celtic fans can expect of their potential signing.

The first thing that catches the eye about the Sunderland prospect is that he has been banging in the goals for the League One club this season. Not only is Maja comfortably Sunderland’s top scorer in the league this season, he’s also the joint-second top scorer in the division.

READ MORE: Rangers eye up in-form Charlton striker
 

Maja featured a little for Sunderland last season during their disastrous campaign in the Championship, scoring on his debut but failing to find the net for the rest of the season. However, new manager Jack Ross has shown faith in the youngster, giving him an extended run in the first team and Maja has paid back his manager handsomely.

Maja’s numbers get even more impressive when you examine the 20-year-old’s expected goals (xG). This metric measures not just the number of opportunities a forward has, but the quality of those chances as well. If a player’s xG is similar to their actual goals scored, then they are probably scoring as many goals as they should. If a player’s xG is higher than their goals scored, then they’re missing chances that they should really be putting away.

As we can see, Maja’s goals scored is significantly higher than his xG: nearly twice as high, in fact. The six-point discrepancy between the Sunderland forward’s xG and goals scored suggest that he has scored six more goals than he reasonably ought to have, given the quality of the chances he’s converted. This can be construed in one of two ways. Either Maja is able to score chances that he shouldn’t be able to, or he’s overperforming and will eventually revert to the mean. At this point, there’s no way to say conclusively which statement is true.

READ MORE: What can Celtic fans expect from Vakoun Issouf Bayo?

Maja currently boasts the second-highest shooting accuracy of any League One player this season with 47.1% of his efforts hitting the target, a figure only bettered by Lyle Taylor, formerly of Partick Thistle.

On paper, at least, Maja is certainly impressing this season and all the signs seem to suggest that he is a promising player who could prove useful to Rodgers once Weah and Burke return to their parent clubs. Celtic are yet to confirm their interest in the striker but the young forward looks like he’d be a fine addition to the Scottish Premiership.

Take a look at the video below highlighting Maja’s goals so far this season and judge for yourself.