Cristian Gamboa left Celtic in the summer of 2019 after falling out of favour in a big way.
Cristian Gamboa has revealed to The Scottish Sun that he angered Celtic chief Peter Lawwell and then-manager Brendan Rodgers by failing to leave at one stage during his time in Glasgow.
Rodgers brought the 30-year-old Costa Rica defender to Parkhead from West Brom in 2016 but he managed only 20 Premiership appearances during a three-year spell.
In his final seven months at Celtic, Gamboa, now with German side Bochum, didn’t play a single game after being frozen out of the picture by Rodgers, having also failed to then impress Neil Lennon.
And the right-back admits that he annoyed the Bhoys’ hierarchy when a transfer to New York City FC collapsed, but indicated that there was an issue with his agent too.
He told The Scottish Sun: “It got worse because I got an offer from New York City in the MLS and they offered me everything I asked for. I was all set to go with my family, but on the last day, the negotiations collapsed.
“From then on I felt like I was always fighting with the club. The manager and president at Celtic both didn’t like it that I didn’t take up the offer from America.
“My agent was also fighting with the club too and I felt like I was stuck in the middle of it.”
Gamboa was one of several right-backs that Celtic lost last summer, along with Mikael Lustig and Jeremy Toljan, who returned to parent club Borussia Dortmund.
But there’s a huge silver lining here because if the Bhoys weren’t short on right-back options, they might never have explored the idea of bringing Jeremie Frimpong to Glasgow.
And the former Manchester City youth has arguably been Celtic’s surprise star of the season and, at 19, he’s only going to get so much better.
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