Celtic, Rangers and Southampton battle for Charlton Athletic's Aribo

Celtic, Rangers, Southampton and Rennes are all vying to secure the signature of Charlton Athletic's Joe Aribo, Goal understands.

Arsenal have also been scouting Aribo, but they are thought to no longer hold an interest in Aribo, whose contract expires on June 30.

Aribo's representatives have begun talks with other parties, as permitted by current transfer rules, to secure a pre-contract at the end of the season, but it remains unclear whether a promotion back to the Championship can keep him at The Valley.

Unfortunately for Charlton, they won't be due a fee if Aribo does decide to leave the club this summer.

Speaking in late March, Charlton manager Lee Bowyer outlined the club’s determination to hang on to Aribo.

“We are trying our hardest to get Joe to sign a contract,” Bowyer told the Evening Standard.

“The speculation with Arsenal, if that is the case, shows we have done a good job with him. He was hardly playing last season, now he has got teams like Arsenal supposedly looking at him.”

Bowyer added: "I’ve spoken to Joe on a number of occasions and he knows how we feel. We want him to sign not just for us, but for his own career so we just need to get over this barrier that’s been put in front of us.

"Joe is a good lad so I don’t think articles like that will affect him. He comes to me and I give him advice and if anything was turning his head or putting him off his game I’m sure he would come and talk to me about it."

Charlton are currently aiming to return to the Championship and beat Doncaster 2-1 away from home in the first leg of their play-off battle on Sunday after finishing third in League One this season.

Lyle Taylor, who is also exciting bigger clubs, opened the scoring before Aribo made it 2-0 before a late Matty Blair strike gave Doncaster hope heading into the second leg at The Valley on Friday.

Aribo's goal was his 10th of the season in 37 matches for Charlton and his rise has been rapid since joining the Addicks from non-league side Staines in 2015.