Yang insists Celtic Park Champions League debut will exceed Spurs experience as he makes pre-match huddle admission

The old adage that “you can’t be what you can’t see” rang true for Yang Hyun-jun.

Yang Hyun-jun is eager for his first taste of a Champions League night at Celtic Park. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The prospect of a young Korean footballer one day making it to Europe to play in the Champions League would have seemed unrealistic if others hadn’t travelled that path before him.

Yang remembers watching the pioneering Park Ji-sung scoring for Manchester United against Chelsea in a quarter-final tie back in 2011 and being agog that one of his countrymen was making such an impact on the global stage.

Others like Cha Du-ri and Ki Sung-yueng had also grabbed the attention of this aspiring professional and now Yang has followed in their footsteps this summer by pitching up at Celtic Park.

Having made his Champions League debut off the bench in the opening day defeat to Feyenoord in Rotterdam, Yang is now eagerly anticipating his home bow in this competition when Lazio are the visitors on Wednesday night.

It is a match that Celtic probably have to win if they are to have any realistic possibility of making it through to the last 16 and Yang wants to seize the chance to make an impression just like Park did on him a dozen years earlier.

“I’m really looking forward to playing in the Champions League at Celtic Park,” he said. “I remember the famous Korean football player Park, when I was young I saw a match between Manchester United and Chelsea. Park scored in that game and so after watching that match it’s now an honour to be involved.

“I had a lot of heroes in my football life when I was younger. I looked up to any footballer who played overseas, especially Cha Du-ri and Ki Sung-yueng who played at Celtic.

“I met Ki very often at K-League games and I’ve also met Cha because he’s a coach with the South Korea national team. When I was involved with the national squad, we talked then.

“Those players gave me hope and inspiration that I could follow in their footsteps. All those three players gave me motivation to play football, also as a professional football player. I always imagined what it would be like to play in a Champions League game and I’m very grateful to them for this.”

Yang recalls playing in a friendly back home against a visiting Spurs side but expects Wednesday night’s experience to supersede that.

“We had a special game against Tottenham in Seoul and I was in the squad,” he remembered. “I got to play in front of 60,000 supporters and it was a great experience for me. But I expect the Lazio game at Celtic Park to be even better.

“If we play our own style of football, I think it’s possible to beat Lazio. If we are going to qualify from this Champions League group, we have to win this game, definitely.”

Yang is grateful to team-mates Oh Hyeon-gyu and Kwon Hyeok-kyu at Celtic with him as he gets to grips with a strange country and an unfamiliar language. The 21-year-old has been diligently taking English lessons and claims that he can now even pick up some of Callum McGregor’s pre-match rallying call inside the huddle.

“There are three Korean players here including myself so we are helping each other so I’ve had no difficulties settling,” he added. “The biggest change for me has been the language. I’m having English lessons but I want to improve as quickly as possible so I can communicate by myself without a translator.

“I can catch one or two words usually inside the huddle! So I can just about understand the message.”