NEW Hibs defender Marijan Cabraja believes he will enjoy playing in the Scottish top flight after coming up against Celtic in Europe last season.
The left-back joined the Leith side on a three-year deal from Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday evening as a replacement for Josh Doig, who made the switch to Hellas Verona.
Cabraja was on loan at Ferencvaros at the start of last season when the Hungarian side were beaten both home and away by Ange Postecoglou’s side in the Europa League group stages.
And the 25-year-old former Croatia youth internationalist is confident of adjusting to life in Scotland on and off the pitch.
He said: “Scottish football is really dynamic and Celtic is a really good team, they beat us and I think the league is really dynamic with a lot of fighting and running - it should be fun.
“I’m very excited to play football in Scotland, this is maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity so I didn’t want to miss it.
“Edinburgh is such a nice city; I have read a lot about the city and I can’t wait to explore it.”
Cabraja was a team-mate of Adam Bogdan at Ferencvaros and admits the former Hibs goalkeeper had nothing but good things to say about the club.
He added: “I spoke to Adam and he told me that this club is something that I will maybe not see in my football career because he told me this club was like a family club and with the type of person I am I’m really happy.
“Adam helped me a lot and thank you Adam.”
Cabraja, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Slovenian club NK Olimpija Ljubljana, also believes manager Lee Johnson’s footballing philosophy will suit him.
He added: “To be honest, when I heard what the manager’s plans were and when he told me his idea of football, I was really excited.
“The conversation with Lee helped me a lot, nobody can guarantee that you will play every game if you train badly, but it helped me because I quickly realised that his idea of football is similar to mine.
“When I checked the club it’s a historical club and I’m really glad I got this opportunity.”
New Hibs striker Momodou Bojang, meanwhile, admits he is finally glad to have arrived in Edinburgh after waiting over a month to obtain his work permit.
The Gambian joined up with his new team-mates on Wednesday and could make his debut in Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup clash at Bonnyrigg Rose.
He said: “I had to take care of myself. I was in Gambia doing my own training.
“I was working hard, training in the morning and in the afternoon every day, before I finally joined the team.
“I am ready now. I am feeling happy. I can’t wait to start training with my team-mates.”
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