Out on loan Celtic star Paulo Bernardo says a former Hoops teammate convinced him to give Poland a try. Bernardo struggled to establish himself at Parlhead, making 38 league appearances since 2024, and still only 24 years of age, it was decided he would go out on loan to Górnik Zabrze for this season.
He has since made 14 appearances, and he seems to be enjoying life in Eastern Europe, which is partly thanks to former Celtic star Luis Palma, who helped convince him to make the move, albeit temporarily, due to currently playing in Poland with Lech Poznan.
Bernardo told Weszlo: "He told me a lot of good things about Poland, the league, and the club. Luis [Palma] is my friend, we get along very well.
"We joined Celtic at the same time and have been close ever since. He even said that moving to Poland was the best decision he could have made at the time and that he was very happy here. I knew I could trust him, and now I see he was right."
Bernardo could actually end up stayingw with Zabrze for the long haul, with the Polish side holding an option to buy in the loan deal.
Given they agreed to that option, Celtic clearly aren't too bothered about getting Bernardo back, and so it will be important for the midfielder to figure out what he wants long-term during his time over there.
Why Bernardo made the move
When he made the move, Bernardo said: "It was very important for me to play and I'm still at the age that I need to play. Here, hopefully I can do that for the rest of the season. Of course it all depends on how I can perform.
"It was a very important thing for me that I need to play football. When I talked to the club, to the coach [Gasparik], he was very happy for me to join and that was a key factor to join here."
He added: "I spoke to him the last days that the deal was almost done. I had the conversation with him and I told him I needed to play football and I don't think in Celtic right now I would have the game time that I needed.
"He was very open with me and he totally understood. He opened the doors for me to go and he was very honest as well. He told me that it was probably the best for me to come here and have game time."
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