Former Celtic man banished to reserves in ‘increasingly painful’ situation

Former Celtic defender Dedryck Boyata has been relegated to Club Brugge’s reserve team. According to a report by Gazet van Antwerpen (via Sport Witness), the situation is ‘increasingly painful’ for his current club due to the fact he is one of their highest earners.

The centre-back, who is 33-years-old, is now facing an uncertain future in the Belgian Pro League. He has to wait until the next window in January to find a new home.

Celtic signed Boyata in 2015 as a youngster from Manchester City. He went on to make 135 games for the Hoops in all competitions and scored 15 goals.

The Belgium international left Celtic Park until a bit of a cloud. He spoke about his departure on the Kickback with Nedum podcast in 2021 and said: “Brendan Rodgers had an interview where he said ‘it’s difficult to win games when we have fit players at home, who don’t want to help the team.’ At that moment, I just felt, I spoke to every single player about my situation. The captain, the goalkeeper, these guys were affected by the situation. They wanted to go to the Champions League. They said 'we need to find the best situation for Dedryk!'. 

“From that moment, I was finished. I came back the day after and went to speak to [Rodgers]. 'How can you do this to me? How can you put me in the situation? You know everything that was going on, you were aware of everything'. He protected himself, he protected the team, and I was the bad guy. From (then) on, it (was) finished.”

He added: “I cannot speak for them, but I really did not think they expected me to go to the World Cup, or for me to play.  So I go to the World Cup, and I have one year left. So we ended up having a good World Cup, finished third. Come back to Celtic. I had very good relations with Brendan Rodgers.

“That was the year the transfer window was closing earlier than usual. So what happened is, I speak with the guys, I speak with the doctors, the coach, about the situation. Yes, I requested a transfer. I said ‘I have these teams behind me, I don’t know what’s going to happen for me in the future. I need to know what’s going on now.’ For myself it was a little bit difficult. I have never been in a situation where I am the villain.”

Boyata moved to England in 2006 to join Manchester City and went on to play 35 times for their first-team as a youngster before leaving for Celtic. He had loan spells away from the Etihad Stadium at Bolton Wanderers and FC Twente to get some experience under his belt.

Hertha Berlin landed him in 2019 and he made 76 outings during his time in Germany, finding the net on six occasions. His former team have since slipped into Bundesliga.2.

Club Brugge acquired the Brussels-born man a couple of years ago but he has since slipped out of favour. He is now training with their reserves after falling down the pecking order.