Jeremie Frimpong might not have spent a long time at Celtic. But even in that short period of time, he was able to establish himself as a favourite amongst the Hoops fans. Arriving at Parkhead as a teenager from Manchester City, he quickly nailed down a spot in the first-team and held on to it until his move to Bayer Leverkusen a season-and-a-half later.
Since then, he has managed to establish himself in Bayer Leverkusen’s starting XI as well. And for that, he deserves massive credit as he is still 20 years of age, playing regular football for one of the biggest clubs in the Bundesliga.
Frimpong will have a Celtic reunion when Bayer Leverkusen face the Hoops in the Europa League group stage and he should expect a good reception from the fans at Parkhead.
It is not just the fans who appear to be looking forward to the seeing him back though. Frimpong has revealed some of the text messages he received from Celtic players recently. As reported by the Daily Record, he said:
"“I was at home and the players texted me – Mikey, Boli Bolingoli.“They text me to say ‘We’ve got you in the group’“I was like ‘what?’“Then I went inside and saw the group I was like ‘yeah’. It’s good to be back.“They can’t wait to see me. Me too. Obviously, they were good friends. We still are friends.“It’s really amazing to be back.“When I was in the car coming here I was just looking at the streets and remembering it all.“When I see the stadium again, the inside, it’s really amazing to be back, really nice.”"
Celtic need to get a result in the game against Bayer Leverkusen
It will be a great moment to have Frimpong back at Parkhead. But one has to remember that this is a very important game for Celtic in their Europa League campaign.
The club lost their opening game of the group stage away at Real Betis. And a second straight defeat would make it even more difficult than it already was, when it comes to making it to the knockout phase of the competition.
Thus, Ange Postecoglou’s side need to look for a result on the night. But that will be very difficult to do against a Bayer Leverkusen side that are in terrific form while Celtic have struggled for both form and fitness in recent times.