CALLUM McGregor last night revealed the chance to play European football was a major factor in his decision to commit his long-term future to Celtic.
McGregor could easily have moved to the Premier League in England like his former team mate Kieran Tierney this summer when Leicester City were interested in signing him.
But he admitted the chance to play clubs like Lazio, who the treble treble winners will face in the Europa League this evening, swayed him.
“People are quick to judge Scottish football,” he said. “To come to a stadium like this is amazing. The stadium has a capacity of over 70,000. There aren’t many teams in the world who come and play in venues like this.
READ MORE: Neil Lennon on why his Celtic side can pull off their Italian job and make history against Lazio
“When you sit here you realise how lucky you are to play for a club like this. You realise you have done something right and are in a good place.”
The midfielder, who signed a five year contract that ties him to the Parkhead club until 2024 yesterday, believes the treble treble winners can transfer their domestic success to the continent in future.
McGregor added: “In the last few seasons we have obviously done really well domestically. I think now it is about us trying to cut our teeth in Europe and trying to make a real statement in there as well.
“The way we have started in the group has been great. So we come here tomorrow night and if we get a positive result it gives us a real chance of going and progressing in the group.
“That is something we have spoken about. It is important that if we come here and get a positive result we can start to look to do something in Europe.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here