Former Celtic defender Erik Sviatchenko up for Player of the Year award in Denmark

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Former Celtic centre-back Erik Sviatchenko has been nominated as one of four contenders to win the 3F Superliga Player of the Year award for 2019.

Sviatchenko has had a simply stunning year with Danish outfit Midtjylland. Back in April, he was part of the side that won the Danish Cup against Brondby. He then spent the second half of the year leading his team to a four-point advantage at the top of the Superliga.

This season alone, the man Ronny Deila signed for Celtic back in 2016 has secured eight clean sheets in 19 matches in the league. However, in a further 10 of those games, the opposition hasn’t managed to get any more than one goal (Transfermarkt).

A solid defence has been the base of Midtjylland’s fine season so far. They were knocked out of the Danish Cup by Fremad Amager, but Sviatchenko wasn’t in the squad.

He’ll now rival Robert Skov, Carlos Zeca, and Kamil Wilczek for the Player of the Year honour.

Sviatchenko has found a place for Celtic in his heart

Sviatchenko may have officially left Celtic in 2018, but he’s always carried us around in his heart. The Danish international has stated on many occasions that he still has a real love for the club (Daily Record).

In fact, it was only last month when he lept to Glasgow’s defence and shot down a Danish journalist who labeled our home as one of Europe’s ugliest cities. Erik quickly put him in his place on Twitter.

But Svitachenko will always be one of our biggest mysteries. He was decent on the ball and was strong in the challenge. He seemed to have all the attributes to make it at Parkhead. Despite making 63 appearances for us, however, Rodgers seemed to prefer having Dedryck Boyata in the team instead (Transfermarkt).

At 28, Sviatchenko certainly still has plenty to give. It may be asking too much to see him back at Celtic as a player, but he’s one who should’ve ended up at Parkhead a lot longer than the two-and-a-half years he was here for.

It’s great to see such a good Celtic man have such success elsewhere. He’s rivaling Celtic’s own Europa League opponents in Copenhagen for the title this year, and Midtjylland certainly look like favourites to win back the Danish Superliga crown too.

Whether he can add the Player of the Year title to a potential league winner’s medal will be intriguing. In any case, we wish Erik nothing but the best between now and the end of the season.