Celtic new bhoy Freddie Ljungberg can’t wait to feel the passion of the Celtic support.
The former Arsenal double winner put pen to paper last night on a six month deal to join Celtic with the option to extend it by another twelve months.
Ljungberg will be in the Celtic squad to face Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday but is likely to start the match on the bench.
He admitted: “I’m delighted to be here and happy to get things finalised.
“I want to help the team and will see how training goes. I’m lucky that my body is quite tiny, I train easily and don’t get unfit. Of course I can train harder here and get fitter but I’m in good shape and see how I feel if I can help the team.
“The league in America is much better than it’s sometimes given credit for. I wanted something different when I went to America, I’ve come here to Celtic because the thing that I missed most in America was the passion for the sport.
“You get that here with the amazing fans, for me it’s great and something that I’m really looking forward to.”
The Swede added: “We haven’t spoken so much about it (the atmosphere at a Celtic-Rangers match) but I’ve played with Johan and Henrik for a long time and they spoke about it with the national team.
“I’ve watched the games on tv and have friends who’ve been to the games and I’m really looking forward to it.”
The new bhoy has been handed the No. 7 jersey worn by Henrik Larsson but is happy to take on that responsibility.
He added: “At Arsenal I got Ian Wright’s old number, he was a legend and I tried to carry it as well as I can and I’m going to do the same thing with the number 7 shirt here.
“It’s a great honour from the club that they want me to wear that shirt and I’ll try to wear it with pride.”
Neil Lennon was delighted to make an early start to business with the players registration set to be completed tomorrow morning.
The Celtic boss said: “He’s a player with vast experience, he’s been a quality player for a long long time and is the type of player that we’ve been looking to bring into the squad.
“He was quite willing to come up and look around the place which was good from our point of view and we’re very happy with the qualities that he can bring to the club and obviously the decision was then down to Freddie whether he wanted to come here.
“It’s a big decision at this stage in his career but I can’t emphasise enough how pleased we are to have him here.”
Turning to Sunday’s team selection Lennon admitted: “It’s a tough question, he hasn’t played much football since October.
“We can see that he’s still in great condition, he’s been through the medicals with no problem at all so he’s in contention.
“Both ourselves and Freddie hope he enjoys it here and that he has great success and we have success with him.”
Will Freddie be Lubo or Gravesen?
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