Celtic defender, Gustaf Lagerbielke, was honoured at a prestigious award ceremony in Sweden last night.
The 23-year-old made a £3m summer switch from Elfsborg to Celtic [BBC] but it was his performances for the Swedish Allsvenkan side that earned him the adulation of his fellow professionals.
Lagerbielke was named the Allsvenskan’s Defender of the Year last night in an awards ceremony held in Sweden. [Allsevenskan]
The 23-year-old clearly impressed in his sixteen appearances for Elfsborg as he scored two goals [Transfermarkt] and beat off stiff competition from the likes of Swedish international, Sebastion Holmen and Hammarby’s Edvin Kurtulus.
What has happened to Gustaf Lagerbielke at Celtic?
After a decent start to his Celtic career, Lagerbielke seems to have dropped off the face of the planet under Brendan Rodgers.
The defensive crisis at Celtic meant that Rodgers had to use Lagerbielke at the beginning of the season rather than the Swede earning the right to play.
However, he performed fairly well and after a shaky start in the Glasgow Derby at the beginning of the season, Lagerbielke held his own to help Celtic get the 1-0 win at Ibrox.
His red card against Feyernoord was a major setback for Lagerbielke and since then, he has only featured twice.
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Lagerbielke recently opened up on why he has suddenly been dropped from the Celtic matchday squad and the Swede admitted he didn’t know why he has fallen out of favour but is still happy at the club.
Clearly, the return of Cameron Carter-Vickers from injury and the emergence of Liam Scales hasn’t helped his case but surely there was scope to get him involved at some point this season?
Lagerbielke does have the talent to be a good defender at Celtic. It’s whether or not he can convince Brendan Rodgers or not that will be the biggest challenge of his career so far.
In other news, Better than Virgil van Dijk, player Celtic sold in the summer is now the best in Europe at clearances