Luis Palma reveals the 'only thing' difficult about life at Celtic and why Atletico Madrid goal meant so much

Madrid might just be the perfect football destination for Celtic winger Luis Palma this week.

Luis Palma celebrates scoring Celtic's second in the 3-0 win over Ross County. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

Not just because two weeks ago the 23-year-old produced a powerhouse finish in the pulsating draw at home to an Atletico with which they will be reconvening in the Spanish capital on Tuesday. Nor the fact that the elite competition seems to be proving to the attacker’s taste. A feeling generated by Palma having a similarly swish strike agonisingly ruled out for a whiskerish offside call against Daizen Maeda in their previous Group E encounter against Lazio. A moment in which the Scottish champions’ campaign may ultimately turn, with the 2-1 advantage he thought he had earned late on, giving way to the Italians snatching an added-time goal to win by that scoreline.

It can be considered that Madrid will be to Palma’s taste because he is both a product of his Honduran homeland and fiercely patriotic when it comes to his nation.

He smiles that the “only thing” difficult about adapting since his late August £3.5m move from Greek club Aris is that “the sun hides quite quickly” in Scotland. A point he illustrated with a fourth goal and an assist in a second-half cameo that secured Brendan Rodgers’ men a 3-0 victory in Dingwall yesterday.

The sun hid all day in the Highlands, but rarely would such a comment be offered up of the sunny climes to be found in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula to which he is now headed. And then there is the club of Atletico Madrid itself he is now preparing to take on. The player talks of the pride his countryfolk take in seeing their own performing on the biggest stage in club football. Currently, Palma is a man alone on that front, as he notes. But in talking of Jose Cardosa he seems to have been weaned on tales of those from his land who had their days in the sun in Europe. The forward a member of the Atletico team that captured La Liga in 1965-66, having scored the winning goal in the final of Copa del Generalísimo, since renamed La Copa del Rey, against Real Zaragoza the previous year.

His heroics as a Honduran scorer in the Champions League he doesn’t take lightly then. “It was an important game for the team and even for my nation, for my family, it was so good to score. It was just a shame that we couldn’t get the win,” he said of the Atletico finish. “It means a lot to me for my career and especially for my nation. Not a lot of players from my country have played in the Champions League, or will have the opportunity to play in the competition. So it means a lot for my country as well. So I want to take every opportunity to score.”

Not that the moment could entirely wipe away feelings of what might have been had he not endured misfortune against Lazio. “In reality it is just a memory,” Palma said. “Things pass and I am just concentrating on the next game coming up. [But] it was hard to take and I am just glad to have scored against Atletico.”