Celtic‘s Paulo Bernardo says Górnik Zabrze “really pushed” to take him away from Martin O’Neill’s side in the summer window.
The Portuguese midfielder initially joined Celtic on loan from Benfica in 2023 and made his stay permanent a year later.
At that time, Brendan Rodgers was in charge at Celtic, and he mainly used the midfielder as a substitute.
Rodgers left the Scottish Premiership winners last October, and Martin O’Neill replaced him. This had a direct impact on his role in Glasgow. To put it in context, Bernardo played 97 matches for Celtic and 82 were under Rodgers.
Pushed for Celtic exit
Earlier this year, Paulo Bernardo left the door open to return to Portugal. However, he ended up moving to Poland on loan in the summer.
Friday’s edition of Przegląd Sportowy has published an interview with the Celtic man and first asked about his decision to pick Górnik Zabrze despite having several options.
Responding to that, he said: “Górnik really pushed for me to come here. The coach, staff, and board really wanted me. For me, the most important thing is playing football.”
“Last season at Celtic, I didn’t have many opportunities; a second year in a row without regular appearances wasn’t an option. After discussions with the coach and board, I felt it was the best decision.”
He played 635 minutes from 20 matches for Martin O’Neill’s side last season.
Talks with former Celtic man
Germany legend Lukas Podolski spent five years at Górnik Zabrze between 2021 and 2026.
The Celtic owned player reveals the former Arsenal man had a role in his move to Poland.
Paulo Bernardo explained: “Absolutely. He was a great player; I remember admiring him on the pitch and he also attended one of the matches. He told me a few things that influenced my decision to come here.”
His former Celtic teammate, Luis Palma, is at Lech Poznań.
The Honduras international joined them permanently earlier this year, after initially moving on loan last summer.
Bernardo reveals talks with Palma before joining the Ekstraklasa side.
“He told me a lot of good things about Poland, the league, and the club. Luis is a friend of mine, and we get along very well. We joined Celtic at the same time and have been close ever since,” he added.
“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 believe him, and now I see he was right. I’ve spoken to a lot of Lech players, and they all say the same thing: Palma is the funniest guy in the dressing room.”
Bernardo feels the Polish league may be trickier than Scotland: “There are no easy matches. In Scotland, when I played for Celtic, sometimes we knew we were going to win the game before we even stepped onto the pitch. Here, if we don’t fight, run, and play good football, we can lose. In Scotland, sometimes we scored goals out of nothing and just won. Here, I’m impressed with the level of the teams. The league is very even, so we have an extremely difficult season ahead.”
The Celtic owned player has two assists from 568 minutes from eight matches for Górnik Zabrze.
