Carl Starfelt hopes to use his platform at Celtic to catapult him into the international reckoning with Sweden.
The defender joined the Hoops from Rubin Kazan earlier this summer and immediately set himself the target of breaking into the Swedish national set-up like former Celt Mikael Lustig did before him.
Having made his debut away to Hearts in an opening day defeat, the 26-year-old didn't exactly enjoy a memorable start but he is convinced he can help the club be successful to both win silverware but also put his name in lights and allow himself the best opportunity at playing for his country.
"Of course, it is a big goal for me to win a spot in the national team," he said. "If you are playing at Celtic and you are being successful there when you do, it will look good for me in terms of that. You have seen from the times before that Swedish players who do good when here at Celtic are able to play regularly for the Sweden national team.
"So, of course, that also makes it a goal for me to do the same thing."
International football is one thing but European competition is another, and Starfelt wants to star there, too. He wants to play on the biggest stage for his new club and feels he is ready and capable to do so if called upon to start against Jablonec in qualifying.
"As for the two qualifying Champions League games, I think Celtic was the better team in the matches against Midtjylland. We didn’t go through to the next round there in the end, but we played decent football in the games.
"I played in the qualifying before, but I don’t have too much experience with European games.
"Of course, it is still football, so I think it is too big a difference and some of the boys here at Celtic have played a lot of games in Europe in their careers.
"At the end of the day, it is still just football."
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