Motherwell defender, Stephen O’Donnell has named the treble-winning former Celtic hero that he admits to being ‘delighted’ to not going up against in the Scottish Premiership every week.
A former Celtic youth himself, O’Donnell left the club in 2011 to start his career at Partick Thistle. He went on to join Luton Town in 2015 and after two seasons he returned to the Scottish Premiership at a time when Celtic were rampant domestically.
The first Brendan Rodgers era had just started and Celtic had the likes of Moussa Dembele, Patrick Roberts and Scott Sinclair in their ranks.
But it was during Neil Lennon‘s second spell at Celtic that O’Donnell named the one former Celtic star he said he was over the moon not to face too often in the domestic game.
Jeremie Frimpong was ‘ridiculous’ for Celtic
Frimpong joined Celtic from Man City and made an instant impact at the club. The young Dutchman put in a man-of-the-match performance against Partick Thistle and was very popular amongst the Celtic fans for his enthusiastic and infectious personality.
At just 19, Frimpong showed a real love for the game, and Celtic and his performances in his first season at the club helped Neil Lennon seal the Treble Treble and he was also voted Celtic’s Young Player of the Year by the Hoops support.
And he was a player that O’Donnell named as the one he was most happy not facing when Frimpong was at the peak of his Celtic powers.
O’Donnell said [The Go Radio Football Show], “I’ve never really been up against him too often. But I’m delighted at that because his acceleration over two or three yards was ridiculous.
“It just means you would cover the line and he would jot inside. Again, I was maybe a wee bit more surprised because I didn’t know how good he would have been.
“I certainly thought he’s a very good talent and had ridiculous pace which is always a positive.”
Frimpong left Celtic in 2021 to join Bayer Leverkusen and he has just gone from strength to strength at the German giants.
Capped at full international level for the Dutch, Frimpong has been tipped to make a big money move sometime in the near future.
And when that time comes, Celtic will be in for a huge payday as the club will be due a 30% cut of any profit made when the time comes for Leverkusen to let him leave.
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