Former Celtic hero Mikael Lustig announces his retirement at the end of the season

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Former Celtic hero Mikael Lustig has announced he will be retiring from football at the end of the 2022 season with AIK Stockholm.

The 35-year-old will bring his successful 18-year career to an end next month following the conclusion of the Allsvenskan league campaign.

During his playing days, Lustig had three separate spells in his homeland, as well as spending time in Norway and Belgium.

However, his most prolific and likely the most memorable time across his playing days was spent in Glasgow as a Celtic player.

After joining the Hoops from Rosenborg in 2012, the right-back spent around eight years at the club, working under Neil Lennon, Ronny Deila and Brendan Rodgers.

Lustig was part of some of the most successful teams in the club’s illustrious history, lifting eight Scottish Premiership titles, four Scottish Cups and four Scottish League Cups.

The Swedish international played a crucial role as part of the Treble Treble-winning side and was the starting right-back during Brendan Rodgers Invincible season.

No Celtic supporter would fail to remember Lustig’s brilliant antics, and he was seen as one of the biggest characters within the Hoops changing room. Of course, who could forget his famous police hat celebration in the 5-0 win over Rangers at Celtic Park.

Across his 276 appearances for the Bhoys, the full-back made a decent contribution in front of goal, scoring 21 and providing 40 assists.

Arguably his best goal in the green and white came in the 5-1 demolishing of our Glasgow rivals at Ibrox, as Lustig skipped past several markers and slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

His final moments in a Hoops shirt were extremely emotional ones, as he lifted his final trophy as a Celtic player after setting up Odsonne Edouard’s winner in the 2019 Scottish Cup final.

Lustig enjoyed an incredibly successful career as a player. However, it was announced today that it would be coming to an end.

In a statement released this morning, the former Celtic man’s current club, AIK Stockholm, announced that he would be retiring following the conclusion of the current season in Sweden.

AIK still have five more games to play in the Allsvenskan as they prepare to hand the 94-time capped international with a class send-off.

Former teammates and supporters will rally together to give ex-Celtic hero brilliant send-off.

I am sure as his retirement comes closer, we will see plenty of messages headed Lustig’s way from his former teammates and supporters of his old clubs.

The right-back can be extremely proud of his contributions to football, and from a Celtic supporter’s point of view, particularly from his time spent in the East End of Glasgow.

Lustig will always be remembered for time in one of Celtic’s most successful and consistent sides in the modern era, as well as being a very popular figure at Parkhead.

We wish him all the very best as he prepares for retirement. However, first, the veteran defender has a few more games before he can sit back and reflect!

In other news, Former top referee adds to concerning noise ahead of Celtic’s VAR league introduction.