Hyeon-gyu Oh left Celtic in 2024 for Genk. He’s back in Glasgow to take on Rangers in the Europa League today.
Ahead of the fixture against Russell Martin’s side at Ibrox, Het Belang van Limburg interviewed the 24-year-old. He talked about a few topics, including his time at Celtic and his experience of facing Rangers with the Bhoys.
The South Korea international left his country for the first time when Celtic signed him from Suwon Samsung Bluewings in January 2023. The Scottish champions sold him to Genk in the summer of 2024.
HBVL asked the striker whether he had a ‘culture shock’ after moving from South Korea to join Celtic.
Responding to that, he said: “You can say that again. Fortunately, at Celtic I could count on other foreigners such as Jota, Maeda and Kühn, who took me under their wing. What’s more, Glasgow is a big city where you can find lots of Asian restaurants, for example. That helps with integration.”
The player talked about his experience when meeting Rangers supporters while he was in Glasgow.
“[Laughs] I usually stayed indoors. I often had to pose for photos with Celtic fans. And if I was recognised by a Rangers supporter, I was sometimes verbally abused. But it was only verbal abuse, although I wisely never ventured out into the suburbs,” Oh explained.
During the South Koran’s time at Celtic, he came up against Rangers four times, failing to score in any of those appearances.
He’s already warned his Genk teammates what sort of atmosphere to expect at Ibrox on Thursday and mentioned this when asked about the ‘hatred’ between Celtic and Rangers fans.
“It’s apparently deeply ingrained. I’ve played at Ibrox four times. We won three times, but unfortunately, we lost the time I started. But the hostile atmosphere was always a bit of a shock. I’ve already warned my teammates about that,” he added.
