Cost £5.5m, now he’s studying at 30: What happened to Celtic flop who was “Rolls Royce material”

What happened to Jozo Simunovic

During his five-year tenure in Glasgow, the towering defender sustained an astounding twelve injuries that kept him out of action for 132 matches across all competitions for both club and country.
The centre back finished his Celtic career with 126 games played in five years before being released in 2020 due to his ongoing fitness problems.

After his contract expired in the summer of 2020, the Hoops gave him the freedom to move on without any further obligations. Simunovic took a year off from the game before deciding to join HNK Gorica in his native country.

The table above shows that throughout his eight Gorica appearances, the Croatian titan was unfazed in aerial duels and committed no major mistakes.

He only played in eight games during the 2021–2022 season, though, and the team decided to release him in the summer of 2022, allowing him to become a free agent.

After those eight HNL games, Simunovic, 30, who is still a free agent, has not participated in any professional football games. He hasn’t, however, formally given up playing football.

The former Hoops player disclosed in April of last year that he is pursuing his badges and studying sports management at university in order to get ready for a career after his playing days are over, if they are not already.

Since then, there hasn’t been any news regarding his circumstances; he doesn’t appear to have a new club to play for, and it seems that his current priorities are his studies.

Hopefully, Simunovic will find a place in the football world—on or off the field, in the background or on the field—that suits him.