Glenn Loovens says Celtic's long history of Dutch players was behind his decision to snub interest from Rangers and move to Parkhead.
Well, that and his longstanding love for the the iconic green and white jersey. Loovens signed up under Gordon Strachan in 2008 as Celtic beat off interest from several clubs to secure his signature. Speaking after he made the move, he told Record Sport Rangers were one of them as he went on to win a league title, Scottish Cup and League Cup in his four years at Celtic Park.
The Parkhead club have a strong following in Holland stemming from the days of Wim Jansen and Pierre van Hooijdonk and Loovens admits that made his choice easy. But the iconic green and white Hoops certainly didn't hurt as he told the Celtic View podcast it was all systems go after a friendly where he ran out for Cardiff against Celtic.
He said when asked how his move to Celtic came about: "I was playing for Cardiff at that time and we had a friendly against each other, I believe it was in Portugal. I had a really good game, there were a few teams interested...then my agent came with Celtic. From then on it went quite quick.
"I always liked Celtic as a club, a traditional club, best jersey in the world. So for me it was decided quite quickly from then on that I wanted to join Celtic.
"It's a traditional club and some Dutch people before me came to Celtic, so that's why I always followed them as a team. It was something that I wanted to be part of."
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