One of Celtic’s Invincible season stars is thinking about hanging up his boots already. Jozo Simunovic has revealed that he is considering quitting playing the beautiful game at just 28-year-old in what would be quite the shock if it does come to fruition. The Croatian signed for the Hoops back in 2015, and was a stalwart of the team despite successive injury problems.
The former Bhoys central defender was part of the magnficient Brendan Rodgers Celtic side of 2016/17, who managed to go the full Scottish Premiership league campaign unbeaten. It was quite the feat, and they added to that outstanding achievement by going 17 games without dropping any points into the bargain, which was only bettered by Jock Stein’s 1966 side who managed 25 games!
An excellent defender and great on the ball, injury issues blighted what should have been a big career in the game. Sure he was prone to the odd mistake at times and shutting off instead of concentrating during some key moments, but near enough every defender in the sport goes through that at some point and Jozo always recovered well from his setbacks on the pitch.
It’s just a shame he didn’t manage to bounce back so quickly with his physical conditioning, otherwise he would have been a Celtic great for sure. He was Virgil van Dijk’s replacement at the time of singing, which made it pretty much impossible to impress the supporters from the off. But much like Greg Taylor now, he grew into the role and changed hearts and minds in the process.
Now studying at university, he is thinking of moving into Sports Management, after his spell at HNK Gorica came to an end in his homeland. The big man is now looking ahead to new beginning and revealed he could leave his playing days behind him for good soon. As reported by Scottish Sun, Jozo said: “Life is good. I have a one-year old baby now and I am very busy! Come the summer I will decide whether to start playing football again or not.
“We will see how it goes. Right now, I have a lot to be busy with. I’m at university and also doing my badges. I am studying sports management. I have been doing that for the last two years and I enjoy it. It’s going OK and I am combining that with my coaching qualifications. If I don’t go back to playing, I will stay in football — it’s really all I think about. That could be coaching, agency work or sports management. Let’s see what happens.”
Jozo says his departure from Celtic Park and the supporters was a tough one to take, but he will always reserve a special place in his heart for the Hoops. He added: “I spent five years in Scotland. It was a long time and I have so many happy memories. We played in big games, we won a lot of trophies and I will always see Celtic as a special place.”
Paul Gillespie
Really expected a gif of Jozo launching Miller to be tagged on the end of that! Lol
I heard he was also studying astronomy at uni, so he could track Kenny Miller across the night sky.