As Celtic prepare to open up their Champions League campaign against Slovan Bratislava, UEFA begins the build-up to the big game with an interview with Callum McGregor.
The Celtic captain is set to embark on another group-stage adventure against Europe’s elite clubs and whilst he has enjoyed a successful career at Celtic Park, it wasn’t always plain sailing for McGregor in Paradise.
The 31-year-old midfielder is an experienced campaigner for Celtic on both the domestic and European stages but there was a ‘turning point’ at Celtic that McGregor felt was pivotal in his career at Parkhead.
McGregor’s first-team debut in Champions League
The Celtic captain has made 17 appearances in the Champions League group stage phase but it was in one qualifier on his Champions League debut McGregor believes the big watershed moment for him at Celtic.
As part of UEFA’s Champions League show previewed by Celtic TV, McGregor said, “The game against Rekjavik was probably as big a turning point as you can get really. Your first team debut in the early rounds of the Champions League.
“You want to make an impact and you want to be remembered because there’s a lot of people who come through and have five or six games and it maybe doesn’t materialise into the way that they first planned it would.
“My parents stayed up to four in the morning to welcome me back when I when I first got back from the game and it was just a brilliant a family moment as well.”
McGregor scored the only goal of that game in 2014 as Celtic beat the Icelanders 1-0 away only to finish the job at Parkhead with a further 4-0 win where he created an assist.
The former Scotland international also scored in the next two away qualifiers against Legia Warsaw and NK Maribor but, unfortunately, Celtic stumbled against the Slovenians after a 1-1 away draw was overturned at Celtic Park as Maribor ran out 1-0 winners to qualify for the group stages.
McGregor’s journey from Celtic’s Academy
McGregor has spent the majority of his career at Celtic barring a loan spell at Notts County in 2013.
However, it was in the academy where the Celtic captain realised his dream of wanting to pull on the green and white Hoops in the Champions League at Celtic Park.
McGregor continued, “To come from a boy that was in the academy to go on and Captain the club and experienced those nights I was talking about as a ball boy and now on the other side of that with a lot of responsibility, it’s brilliant.
“It’s what I’ve wanted since the day I wanted to start playing football.”
Callum McGregor has appeared in the group stages of the competition in seasons 2016/17, 17/18, 22/23 and 23/24 and he will be hoping that this season will be the first he leads Celtic out of the groups for the first time as the captain of the club.
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