Forgotten Celtic winger Marco Tilio has admitted that the club wanted him to complete pre-season with Brendan Rodgers and the first team but the 23-year-old opted to remain in Melbourne.
Tilio joined Celtic in a deal worth £2m last summer but after just six months, the Australian returned to Melbourne City on a loan deal. The attacker was confirmed to remain with the A-League side for the 2024/25 campaign.
Speaking to The Advertiser, Tilio said that there were options for loans in Europe but he wanted to get back playing.
“I spoke with Celtic, and they wanted me to go back there and do the pre-season, but for myself, it was about getting myself in the right place and the right mindset to eventually want to go back overseas.”
“For me, missing so much football, I didn’t want to risk going back overseas and not playing again, so I made the decision to stay at City with the opportunity to play consistent games stay fit and put myself in a really good spot, come the end of this loan spell, to go back.
“There were (other loan) opportunities in Europe to go back and explore but knowing the competition in Europe, I wanted to have a year of playing consistently. There’s no guarantee of that anywhere, but for my best chance, I stayed here.”
The young attacker came to the club with an injury which put him behind the rest of the squad, meaning that when he did join up with the rest of the squad, he was lacking sharpness. Brendan Rodgers said that the player had struggled to cope with the step-up since arriving. Now, it appears clear that he wants to regain his confidence with Melbourne with a view to returning to Celtic next summer.
