Former Celtic man Josip Juranovic has a chance to win Bundesliga in remarkable 3-way title race

By John McGinley

February 20, 2023

After being linked with so many big clubs over the last six months, it took some Celtic supporters by surprise that Josip Juranovic left for Union Berlin in January.

They are by no means a small outfit but don’t have the illustrious name of some of Juranovic’s other reported suitors. Clearly, however, they are an ambitious team and if you look at the Bundesliga table, you can immediately see that.

Results in the German top-flight over the weekend mean that Union now sit level on 43 points with both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at the top of the table, albeit with an inferior goal difference.

The Bundesliga is heating up

Bayern lost a dramatic fixture against Monchengladbach on Saturday, with Union’s draw at home to Moritz Jenz’s Schalke enough to pull them level.

The two giant clubs will remain favourites to push on and open up a points gap on Union in the 13 remaining games, but given the situation after 21, you certainly can’t rule them out. It’s a three-way title race, make no mistake. And others could join the fray with Freiburg and RB Leipzig in hot pursuit.

Union haven’t lost in the league since November and they’ve won eight of their last nine top-flight games.

Juranovic has already emerged as a key performer for the German club, making four starts across three competitions. Union are also competing in the UEFA Europa League knockout stages and the German Cup.

It serves Celtic well if he performs in the German top-flight. Not only is it a good advert for the Celtic model of player improvement, but there may even be performance-related add-ons available to the Bhoys.

Nobody would begrudge the Croatian success after such a productive spell at Celtic. If he goes on to win major silverware with Union Berlin, it’d be fantastic to see.

All the best Josip!

In other news, Carl Starfelt says he’s aiming to emulate Christopher Jullien in Celtic cup final.