ARNE ENGELS has seen his football career perform a complete somersault since his record £11million arrival at Celtic in August last year.
The silky Belgium international midfielder has gone from survival at Bundesliga outfit Augsburg to silverware at Brendan Rodgers’ champions.
Engels picked up his first medal as a professional footballer when the Hoops he netted in the dramatic 5-4 penalty-kick triumph over Philippe Clement’s Ibrox side in the Premier Sports League Cup Final at Hampden in mid-December.
NUMBER ONE…Arne Engels (behind Callum McGregor on right) enjoys his first trophy success as Brendan Rodgers holds aloft the Premier Sports League Cup at Hampden in December.
The classy playmaker was also introduced to life as a Celt when he made a 62nd minute substitutes’ appearance in place of Paulo Bernardo in the champions’ 3-0 stroll at Parkhead in September, only a couple of days after his signing.
And Engels took his place in the victory parade when the Hoops overcame Dundee United 5-0 at Tannadice on Saturday to lifted his first title in the club’s fourth consecutive Premiership success.
The 21-year-old middle-of-the-park performer was delighted with the crowning glory and said: “It’s an amazing feeling. It’s my first and I cannot wait to get other ones.
“It’s like a bit of a drug that you want to achieve so much and win so much.
“I’m here to try and win EVERYTHING. That’s also a different mindset than I had maybe in Augsburg. It wasn’t really about winning everything, but not really losing.
NUMBER TWO…Arne Engels joins in with his triumphant team-mates as Celtic seal their fourth successive title with a 5-0 romp against Dundee United at Tannadice.
“Here it’s totally different. You’re expected to win and that’s a nice feeling for me because I already had that mindset.
“It was easy for me to come in here and get on track with the boys and do the same things that they also did already last year.”
It hasn’t all gone to plan for the four times-capped international. He will return to Ibrox for Sunday’s High Noon showdown and he is unlikely to forget his introduction to the venue in the first game of 2025.
A passive Hoops side lost 3-0 and he was hit in the face with a missile thrown by a thug late in the game when he was at the touchline.
Engels is now looking forward to Celtic’s bid to reassert their supremacy in the fixture after also losing 3-2 at Parkhead last month.
The smooth operator, speaking to The Herald, continued: “We want to win every game, it’s not only the Rangers game that we want to win. Otherwise, you cannot be champions.
“Of course, it’s a big game and it is big also for us because we lost the last two.
“Everybody was really disappointed about those two games so it’s up to us to now take revenge.”
FOUR IN A ROAR…Arne Engels celebrates with Jeffrey Schlupp at Tannadice.
Engels has also been nominated for the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award alongside Lennon Miller (Motherwell), James Wilson (Hearts) and Hamza Igamane (Rangers).
He added: “I’m trying to improve every day so it would be an amazing feeling to get a reward for it, everybody wants that.
“But that’s not the main goal. The main goal is all the trophies.
“There’s still one to play for and still a few more games in the league that we want to end really strong.”
The curtain will come down on Engels’ first season at Scotland’s 55 times-crowned title kings when Rodgers’ men line up against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Final at the national stadium on Saturday May 24.
The Hoops are on the brink of their sixth treble in nine stupendous years and Engels is ready to play his part.
