As the new season approaches and Celtic get their summer preparations underway, the fans will be hoping that Brendan Rodgers is set announce his first signing of the transfer window.
The summer has been relatively quiet for the Hoops fans in terms of moves into the club with most of the transfer news taken up with players leaving Paradise.
Sead Haksabanovic has moved on to Malmo and Marco Tilio has extended his loan spell Down Under with Melbourne FC as he looks to kick start his flailing career,
However, there is another Celtic player connection in the Southern Hemisphere that the Celtic fans may well have forgotten about and he is set to embark on another chapter of his career after an overnight announcement.
Auckland FC appoint Jonathan Gould
New Zealand side, Auckland FC were formed just three months ago and were granted a licence to play in Australia’s top flight for season 2024/25.
Gould was appointed their new goalkeeper coach and the club wasted no time in putting the former Celtic hero straight to work:
As Celtic fans of my vintage will remember, Gould was a big part of the Celtic team that stopped Rangers’ bid for ten-in-a-row in 1998 as he helped Wim Jansen to a league and League Cup double that season.
Gould was also a part of the Martin O’Neill treble-winning squad in 2001 and although he didn’t play a part in the Scottish Cup win that season, he still picked up a winners medal.
The former Celtic goalkeeper has had experience in coaching before. In 2006 he took up the role of manager for Hawkes Bay United and left in 2009 to take up a coaching role with Wellington Pheonix FC.
In 2015 Gould was appointed goalkeeping coach at West Brom by Tony Pulis and followed his manager to Middlesbrough in 2018.
In 2019, Gould moved to Preston North End and was then appointed New Zealand’s goalkeeping coach in 2022.
After a short stint at Stoke City in 2023, Gould now embarks on a new chapter in his career as he takes his newly formed club into the top tier of Australian football next season.