Former Celtic defender reveals why he left the club

Celtic will have to undergo a massive overhaul over the next few months if they want to challenge for the Scottish Premiership title once again. And while most of the changes will likely take place in the summer, some of them already took place in January.

Olivier Ntcham was sent out on loan to Marseille till the end of the season with an option to buy involved in the deal. On the other hand, Jeremie Frimpong and Hatem Abd Elhamed left on permanent deals.

While Frimpong’s move to Bayer Leverkusen came out of the blue, most fans were expecting Elhamed to return to Israel. The defender had found it difficult to adjust to life in Scotland without his family and ended up returning to former club Hapoel Be’er Sheva in January.

His personal issues were not the only reason behind him moving back though, as he has hailed Hapoel Be’er Sheva after rejoining them. As reported by the Daily Record, the Israeli international said:

"“I have mixed feelings about coming back home.“I had a very hard time in Glasgow because I was alone due to the Covid restrictions. I was not allowed to go anywhere and I had to be home all day. But I didn’t return just for that, I only came back because Hapoel are a big club with huge ambitions.“I had a very successful season and a half at Celtic professionally. But I had a period of injury of three to four months that halted my progress, which was disappointing.“Personally, I am delighted to return to a club I have a big connection with and I was very happy to see some fans too.”"

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Elhamed failed to reach his potential at Celtic due to circumstances

Upon joining the club a couple of summers back, Elhamed had looked like a brilliant signing. He was the first choice right-back for Neil Lennon at the start of the season and was one of the standout performances at Parkhead in those first few months.

An injury put him out of action for quite some time though and the emergence of Jeremie Frimpong meant that he would go on to lose his place in the first-team by the time he returned to action.

This, combined with his personal issues, meant that he could never quite rediscover the form that he had shown early on for Celtic. Thus, it was the right decision for all parties involved to allow him to return to Israel, where he can be with his family. And we would like to wish him the best of luck for his future.