John Park has left his position as Celtic's chief scout to embark on "new challenges."

The Scottish Premiership champions confirmed the head of football development is to leave his role after nine years overseeing transfer strategy at the club.

The former Hibernian scout, who made the move to Celtic from Easter Road in 2007, is departing to take on something new, with club chairman Ian Bankier confirming that the search to find Park's successor is under way.

"John has played a key role in the identification of some fantastic Celtic players over the years, players who have entertained the Celtic support and have gone on to have great careers with Celtic and beyond," Paul Lawwell said in a statement.

"I would like to thank John for the excellent job he has done for the Club over the past nine years. I have enjoyed working with John and I am sorry that he has decided to move on. I wish John every success for the future."

Park had been in charge of recruitment at Celtic since 2007, during which time a degree of transfer market success was achieved, not least with the signing of sale of Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster and Virgil Van Dijk.