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I shared dressing room with Invincible Celtic legend and he raved about Scotland

· Alan Robertson · 2026-08-09 · nguồn gốc

I shared dressing room with Invincible Celtic legend and he raved about Scotland but Neil McCann sold me on move Erik Ring shared a dressing room with a few renowned big Bhoys back in Sweden. Now he’s determined to follow the well-trodden path to success story in Scotland, starting by helping put one of them in their place on Sunday. Neil McCann snapped up the winger from League One champions Lincoln City this summer, handing him Kilmarnock’s No.8 jersey. Rugby Park is preparing to debut their new grass pitch and it’s his No.8 counterpart Benjamin Nygren who’s as likely as any Celt to rip it up. The attacking duo were on the same side going back to Sweden Under-21 days while old Hoops favourite Mikael Lustig was Ring’s team-mate at AIK in Stockholm. The Bhoys haven’t half made a big impression in green and white... now Ring’s got a two-year deal to do so in blue and white. And he says front and centre of the pitch to move north of the border was the fact he’d be doing so on grass as Rugby Park’s 14 years on plastic ends at half past one on Sunday. The 24-year-old, whose mum and dad headed to Scotland on Friday to see him play against the champions, said: “I know a few guys who have played in Scotland. “But the first time I spoke to Neil and Kilmarnock, it just felt right so I didn’t feel I needed to speak to more people. “I know a few who have been in the league and who are in the league now. I played with Benjamin for the national ream, Amar Fatah who was at Dundee United was at AIK with me, Mikael Lustig. “Lustig was the funniest guy ever, a top guy. We played a lot together at AIK. He was a help with his experience and he always wanted to win. “He came to AIK after he was in Belgium and played for a couple of years, so we played a lot together. “He shared some stories on how it is and hearing that back then gave me a good feeling about Scotland overall. I knew there was good quality and big teams here.” Nygren buried 21 goals last season and asked about hoping to follow in his footsteps, he said: “Hopefully... that’s the goal. We played for the Under-21 national team together and he’s always been really good. “I didn’t really know him until we met in the national team but he was really good back then and you could see he was going to do something special. It will be good to see him, I haven’t seen him since the national team. “We’ll have to try to stop him scoring, he’s a good player so he’s always finding solutions. But we’ve got a great team and a team that can do something good together.” Premier League clubs like Chelsea and Aston Villa, plus Real Madrid, use the same hybrid grass system underpinning Killie’s new playing surface, the first of its kind in Scotland. And Ring added: “I’ve seen some pictures of the pitch before and I’m very happy it’s grass now. “That was the first thing they told me... we’re changing it to grass! “We’ve seen the pitch being built week after week and how much it’s improved. It’s looking really good now.” McCann put his right winger’s versatility to the test last season when asking Rangers loanee Findlay Curtis to drop back into right-back. The youngster showed he was more than capable of doing so and already Ring has been asked to fulfil the same task in last week’s 4-3 reverse to St Johnstone. He said: “It’s been all right, it’s something I can handle, especially because we want our full-backs to push on in possession. “The centre-backs have been helping me defensively because I get into situations where I’m not really used to be. “It’s been good, I can play there and can play most positions. I didn’t know before I came here (the manager was a winger) but I know now what he did as a player and he’s given me tips on what to do in certain situations. That’s helpful because I’m still learning the way he wants to play. It’s been really good.”