MOUSSA DEMBELE says Celtic's winning mentality makes it the ideal club for him to develop into a senior France international.
The striker signed a four-year deal with the Hoops yesterday after his contract with Fulham expired, having scored 17 times for the Championship club last season.
During his unveiling today, when he was handed the number 10 shirt, the France Under-20 international underlined that the draw of challenging for titles and playing in Europe was what took him to Celtic Park.
The 19-year-old hopes that a move north will see him develop into a senior French international.
“I try to work hard for the team and I’m a goalscorer so I like to score goals and to enjoy myself when I’m on the pitch," he said to Celtic TV.
“Playing for Fulham developed me a lot. I came over when I was 16 and at first I didn’t speak English or know a lot about English football, so I had to settle quickly in the team to progress, and I had a wonderful time there. Now I’m here and all I’m thinking about is Celtic.
“At my age I need to start winning games week in, week out. Celtic have given me this opportunity and it all starts from here.
“That’s why I chose Celtic because I knew if I came here I would have a winning mentality and I would try to win games week in, week out. It’s different to Fulham but as a football player you always want to win and Celtic is a team which is a winner.
“Hopefully playing in the Champions League and trying to win the league here will help me develop and if I develop at Celtic then I will hopefully play for my country. I’ve been watching them in the Euros and I hope they go far.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel