MEXICAN World Cup midfielder Efrain Juarez arrived at Celtic in a £2million four-year deal in July 2010.
Expectation levels were high, but once again the 21-year-old playmaker, signed from homeland club UNAM Pumas, turned out to be an expensive flop.
Juarez made a total of 13 league appearances for Neil Lennon’s side after his debut in the 3-0 Champions League qualifying nosedive against Sporting Braga in Portugal only 11 days after his arrival.
ON THE BALL…Efrain Juarez in one of his 13 league appearances for Celtic as he helps the side to a 1-0 win over St Mirren in Paisley on November 14 2010.
He scored his first goal in the return leg, with the Hoops exiting on a 4-2 aggregate, and he was heading for the exit as early as January 2011, but an anticpated loan switch to Serie A side Brescia Calcio fell through after a failure to agree terms.
Six months later, Juárez moved on a temporary deal to La Liga outfit Real Zaragoza. He made his debut in a 6-0 thrashing from Real Madrid.
In June 2012, the middle-of-the-park misfit quit the Hoops for Mexican outfit Club America for an undisclosed fee – believed to be around £350,000 – before his next switch to the MLS at Vancouver Whitecaps in January 2018. Just over a year later, the player and the club agreed to a mutual parting of the ways.
Remarkably, Juarez teamed up with former Celtic gaffer Ronny Deila at New York City as his assistant boss in 2020 and moved to Belgium as the Norwegian’s No.2 at Standard Liege before the pair hooked up at Club Brugge in June 2023.
* TOMORROW: Don’t miss the adventures of another former Celt in CQN’s EXCLUSIVE series.
