Charly Musonda arrived at Celtic with a fair bit of noise around him.
A Chelsea talent, tipped for big things, he joined on loan in January 2018 with Brendan Rodgers keen to get him in the door months earlier.
It never really got going.
Injury, rhythm, confidence, it just never clicked in Glasgow. By the time he left, there was a sense of something missed rather than something built.
Supporters will still remember the one moment he did deliver.
Against Zenit in the Europa League, less than a month into his spell, Musonda came off the bench and made it count. He took the ball from Moussa Dembele on the edge of the box, his first touch set it perfectly, and Callum McGregor did the rest.
It won the game. That was the flash Celtic fans were promised. It just never followed through.
Now 29, Musonda has already stepped away from the game after years of injury setbacks. Looking back, he admits how difficult it was trying to break through at Chelsea before his move to Celtic.
He said (BBC Sport):
“I look back and think how difficult it was for young players [at Chelsea]. I was probably one of the best, if not the best, of my generation there and it was just so tough.
“The season started and I could not catch a break. In the first game, the Community Shield, we lost on penalties to Arsenal. I was coming on with about 15 minutes to go and, just as I had been called, Pedro got sent off. So when I did get on, we were just hanging on until penalties.
“Then the Premier League starts – Burnley at home – and we have two players sent off again. That is my Premier League debut, I came on with five minutes to go.”
That frustration fed into his decision to finally leave, with Rodgers waiting.
Charly Musonda Celtic
He said: “That is when I was knocking on the door – and that is the hardest part. Brendan Rodgers had wanted me at Celtic at the start of the season but Chelsea said no, then they came back in January and I went with the World Cup in mind.”
Even then, there were other options on the table.
Barcelona had shown interest before he eventually joined Vitesse, a move that changed everything for the worse.
He said: “Barcelona wanted me that summer where I would spend six months in the B team and then hopefully get promoted to the first team but Vitesse also wanted me. Chelsea said, ‘Look, go to Vitesse’.
“During the September international break, I was playing a friendly in Antwerp. The ball was in the air and the guy just put his studs into my knee. I was told I would be out for two months – it ended up being nearly four years.”
That injury more or less ended the path he had been on.
He knows it.
He said: “If I’d played 50 games at Chelsea, or even 20, I’m not in this position today.
“In Spain I left early, in Cyprus I wasn’t paid. I had to walk away and leave money behind – still haven’t been paid.”
There is no bitterness in how he speaks now, more a sense of acceptance.
Football did not give him what it once looked like it might, and his spell at Celtic sits in that wider story.
A bright talent, one moment that sticks, and a career that never quite got the run it needed.
Now based in Los Angeles, Musonda is putting his energy into something different: VS1, a new one-versus-one, combat sport-style football league he is working on from his base in the USA.
He said: “Doing what you believe in – that’s happiness. Living with purpose, adventure, things fall where they fall.”
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