Marco Tilio arrived at Celtic last summer with hopes high that he could be a star in the making at the club.
The Hoops created history by paying a record-breaking fee of £1.5m directly to an Australian club to get Tilio to Parkhead but his move quickly turned sour.
An injury sustained during pre-season meant that the young Aussie winger’s start to his Celtic career hit the buffers and it never really got going after that.
Tilio recovered from his injury back in November but has since made just two appearances in the green and white Hoops amounting to just 27 minutes.
Brendan Rodgers confessed earlier this season that Tilio was struggling at Celtic and now, the 22-year-old finds himself out on loan at his old club, Melbourne City FC.
In an interview published last night, Tilio has now shared the real reason why he chose Melbourne despite his representatives also approaching Sydney FC.
Tilio said [Melbourne City FC], “I had an opportunity to come back and to give back to the Club that nurtured me and brought me here as a young player, that gave me every opportunity and helped me grow and I can only thank them for the time I had here before, and I want to hopefully repay them in this time here now.”
Marco Tilio’s Celtic future
To put it bluntly, it doesn’t look good. Tilio is quite obviously a talented player. Being capped seven times for Australia and having three A-League titles to his name show that he has talent. [Transfermarkt]
Injury coupled with homesickness hampered his time at Celtic and maybe a move back home might do him good.
However, his lack of minutes despite recovering from injury more than three months ago does suggest that Rodgers may not rate the 22-year-old.
And when you look at the competition he has to compete with for a place in Hyunjun Yang, Daizen Maeda, Nicolas Kuhn and to an extent, Luis Palma, Tilio will have his work cut out to win a place in the Celtic first-team.
Tilio had already made three appearances for his new club so hopefully he can make in impact and come back to Celtic a more confident player for next season.
In other news, ‘In the frame’… Crawford Allan says 45-year-old could be referee for huge Celtic vs Rangers clash
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