Viljami Sinisalo reckons he is well on course to dislodge Kasper Schmeichel as the Celtic No.1 goalkeeper and the Finland international knows that his first season as a Celtic player is only the beginning of his time wearing the gloves for the finest team in Scotland.
Kasper’s shoulder injury gave Sinisalo his chance
The Great Dane picked up a shoulder injury in the spring international break playing for Denmark against Portugal in Lisbon and that opened the door for Sinisalo to get his first taste of first team football at Celtic since his £1m move from Aston Villa last August.
“Kasper has one year left on his contract. I have four. We are proceeding according to plan. I am 15 years younger than him,” Sinisalo said, as reported by Daily Record. “Hopefully next season I’ll get more minutes. I’ll just try to play as well as I can when the opportunity arises. We’ll see what happens.”
‘Every footballer wants to play’
He added: “Kasper is an excellent guy. He supported our team well and gave us tips when he was out with an injury. We are a good team together. Every footballer wants to play. However, I knew that in front of me was an experienced top goalkeeper who is, so to speak, coming to the end of his career.
“And that I am the young goalkeeper who is more of a project behind him. There must be some patience from me. But the plan is to be the first-choice goalkeeper at Celtic one day and hopefully that will open doors for me here on the national team as well.”
“Even though the end of the season was disappointing because we didn’t win all three trophies, I enjoyed it. I played seven of the last ten games. I’m quite happy with what I achieved towards the end of the season.
“I got to experience what it’s like to be a Celtic goalkeeper and I got to play in the match that won the league. I lifted that trophy with a slightly better conscience because I had played a part in winning it myself,” Sinisalo added.
Perhaps his most memorable experience was playing in the Glasgow Derby match at Ibrox where he had to contend with a hostile crowd throwing missiles, including bottles at him. Despite that he certainly enjoyed the game that ended in a 1-1 draw.
“And it was cool to experience the game at Ibrox. There were a few nerves before the game – 95 per cent of the crowd were home fans, every one of whom hates you. I will definitely remember the experience forever.”
Many Celtic supporters reckoned that Sinisalo should have seen out the season as he had the gloves and was doing very well indeed. He played in Celtic’s final away match of the Scottish Premiership campaign in a 5-1 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie but Kasper Schmeichel returned for Trophy Day against St Mirren at Celtic Park a few days later then played in the Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen.
That decision to change the keepers are bring Kasper back when perhaps he wasn’t completely ready was Brendan Rodgers’ and it could well have been the decisive call that helped Aberdeen shock Celtic to win the Scottish Cup.
Kasper though will put his error behind him and with a pre-season behind him will be back to his best for the new campaign, meaning Sinisalo will have to wait. But in the course of the next season we could see a changing of the guards in the Celtic goalmouth.
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