Boli Bolingoli joined Celtic last summer with the ambition of winning trophies. The Belgian defender has done just that with two pieces in silverware in his first season, whilst a Scottish Cup semi final still awaits. Bolingoli enjoyed a fine performance in the 2-0 victory at Ibrox, but was a bit part player for most of the campaign. Now he’s targetting more game time and a historic season for the club.
Speaking to Celtic TV, Bolingoli said he was back home in Belgium when he received the news that Celtic had been awarded the league title. Having endured a 14-day self isolation period upon returning to Scotland, Bolingoli has enjoyed linking up with his teammates again at Lennoxtown.
“It feels good to have won the title,” Bolingoli said. “For me, it was my first season at Celtic and winning two cups was nice because not everyone gets to do that in their first season. We could maybe have got the three in a row, but at least we won the two. So it feels really good and hopefully we can just continue in how we start the season in the same way that we finished last season and we can keep growing and getting better as a team.”
Bolingoli then told the channel how he reacted to learning of his title success. “I was back home in Belgium when I heard we’d won the league title. I just came back to Glasgow because before I started back training with the team, I had to spend 14 days in quarantine. I did that and now we’ve started training. It feels good to back training again. That’s what we missed.
“You train every day and you need to motivate yourself, and that’s a different thing. When you’re normally at Lennoxtown, you have team-mates around you – you motivate each other, and it’s a competition. And we’ve been on our own, or with a friend, so you really have to motivate yourself to work hard and to do the programme we’ve been asked to. I think I’ve been doing that well. We’ve tried to stay fit during this period and I think we’re all fit.”
Having not played since beating St Mirren 5-0 back in March, pre-season takes on even greater importance this term. Celtic typically have a very short summer with the European qualifiers starting in July, thus the pandemic has given a rare respite to the team.
Bolingoli said of the training: “Training’s been really hard, but we like that because it’s a pre-season. That’s a part of the pre-season, to get yourself fit and work hard so that we can start the season well. For some people, lockdown and isolation was a hard period, but I focused on being positive during the lockdown. I’ve been working hard and preparing myself physically and mentally to start next season.
“Hopefully, next season I have to try and score goals! Next season, the most important thing is to try and get 10 in a row, and if I can help the team it will be amazing for me to score my first goal for Celtic… I’m still waiting for it!”
You can see the interview below:
