RONNY DEILA has been speaking exclusively to CeltsAreHere.com about signing former Celtic player Efrain Juarez after Valerenga announced the Mexican defender on a one year deal.
We reported a month ago the player was going on trial with Ronny’s club in Norway during their Spanish training camp but the story of how this deal came to be is exclusively a Celtic connection.
Ronny and his family were on holiday in Cancun back in December when the Norweigan was approached by a man asking if he was Ronny Deila – the old Celtic manager. It turns out Efrain had spotted the title winning former Parkhead boss.
It went from a chance meeting about Celtic to the player signing for the club three months later.
Speaking about how the deal came about, Ronny admitted it would never have happened had both of them not had a Celtic connection.
“I was on vacation in Mexico, Cancun in December and I was in a shopping centre when a guy came over to me and asked if I was Ronny Deila, the former Celtic manager, and this guy was Efrain.”
“He said he had played for Celtic and he knew me from my time as the Celtic manager
“We started to talk and we were together for a few days with families. His wife is from Belgium and she wanted to be closer to family and Efrain wanted a new adventure.
I said we need a right back, he played a lot of his career at right back, so he came to the training camp and did good and after that, we agreed a one-year deal to sign him.
“We would never have met had it not been for our connection with Celtic”
“He has much more experience, he was very young at Celtic, he said he started very good but didn’t act good enough professionally”
We have a full interview with Ronny Deila coming up later today! Stay tuned!
