Mikael Lustig says West Ham United and Fulham wanted him before he joined Celtic in January 2012.
The 38-year-old retired in 2022. He’s been a guest on Fotbollskanalen‘s podcast, Lundh, speaking about his playing career, mainly his time at Celtic Park. This is when he talked about rejecting West Ham and Fulham.
Lustig spent over two years at Rosenborg BK and left them as a free agent at the end of 2011. Operating mainly as a right-back, he managed 18 goals and 19 assists from 128 matches for the Swedish club.
His performances convinced West Ham, Fulham and Celtic. The Swede didn’t entertain the London clubs and decided to join the Bhoys.
Although Lustig mainly operated as a fullback, he contributed 113 goals [44 goals and 69 assists] from 529 matches. His offensive ambitions were behind him rejecting West Ham and Fulham, and choosing Celtic instead.
“I had the chance to go to West Ham and Fulham when I was at Rosenborg. But there were two teams that were in the Championship one year, then the Premier League one year and fought at the bottom,” he said.
“At that time, I really couldn’t defend. I couldn’t go there and then just defend, then I would be totally repressed. When I chose, it was really that I needed to go to a team that fought at the top and won a lot of games, because it was the offensive game I had.”
It’s to be noted Fulham were in the Premier League for more than a decade before being relegated at the end of 2013/14 season.
Celtic decision paid off in some style
The Swede was asked how he decided to reject the two English clubs.
“It was me and it was really only the last few years I started focusing on money,” Lustig explained.
“When you felt that ‘now it is good to collect a few coins’. Before, I didn’t care what was in the salary envelope really. It was more that I was going to a club that played offensive football.”
Lustig’s decision to join Celtic paid off. He had a successful career in Glasgow, winning 16 trophies including eight league titles.
