PATRYK KLIMALA arrived in the January transfer window of 2020 from Jagiellonia Bialystok costing the hoops £3.5 million. He failed to impress and last than a year later he was shipped off to the MLS with Celtic surprisingly selling on for the same fee paid.
Klimala had a troubled time as a Celtic player, the most obvious was a manager with no system who had lost the backing of the fans. Polish Paddy, as some of the fans referred to him as arrived just a couple of months before football was suspended due to lockdown.
Klimala had come back in pre-season with a new haircut and meant business. In the french tour that the hoops participated in the Pole looked sharp and Celtic fans were excited by the prospect of a potential strike force of Edouard and Klimala, but this didn’t materialise.
Now in the MLS playing for New York Red Bulls, Patryk is enjoying life and has got himself on the scoresheet multiple times.
“I think many people at Celtic are surely now aware how much progress I have made.
“But there were also a number of unfortunate situations that resulted in me not playing. There was a pandemic and a few transfers of players from the club did not take place.
“I took up the challenge anyway. I wanted to compete for a place.
“I learned from better players at Celtic, I came from Białystok as a raw player. At Celtic, I gained experience and knowledge. I feel like my time at Celtic prepared me to play at a higher level.
“At Celtic, I improved my physical condition. There, the game is fast and based on physicality. Even before the quarantine, I made a decision that I needed to improve and with the help of the coaches, I did.”
In the striker crisis we find ourselves in just now, it would be great to have Klimala to turn to. He reminds fans of the hard work on and off the training ground he endured to make himself a better footballer and of the struggles of living in a foreign country during a pandemic.
Klimala also has a dig at the standard of Scottish football, claiming that the MLS is of a better standard, I beg to differ.
