Football is a nomadic career. Mikael Lustig’s contract extension last week with Celtic, however, bucks the trend of football players tending never to quite establish long-term roots anywhere.

The 30-year-old Swede completed negotiations by opting to remain in Glasgow, where he has been for the last five years and Lars Lagerback, who gave Lustig his full international debut back in 2008, believes that it was a sensible option for the right-back.

“I have seen Mikael get better and better in Glasgow,” he said. “I don’t always get to see him but I sometimes do television work for a Swedish television channel when the Champions League is on.

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“So I have seen him on that platform. For any player that is the highest level you can get to and it was not a big surprise to me that he should want to stay where he is.”

It is Lustig’s appearances in the European arena for Celtic that are particularly telling.

The Swede has pulled on the Hoops 50 times in the last five years as Celtic have featured in European football, with the right-back a quiet but effective mainstay of the Hoops in that time.

There have been some question marks regarding injury issues but these appear to have been sensibly managed by both club and player in order to maximise Lustig’s contribution.

And few could question his reliability.

Certainly, Lagerback believes that the defender is suited to Celtic because it is a club that matches his own personal ambitions.

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“I first got to know Mikael when he was a young player coming through and I knew he wanted to play at the top level,” he said. “What I liked about him was that he had two ways of working – he could do the defensive stuff but he always wanted to get forward.

“He was a duel operator and that is so valuable, particularly now in the modern game where we see fullbacks going further up the pitch all the time. But if you do that then you also need to be able to get back and he is always very mindful of that responsibility.

“But my own experiences of Mikael was that he very personable. He was always a popular member of both youth dressing rooms and the first-team dressing room because he is able to communicate very openly. It doesn’t surprise me that he has taken on responsibility at Celtic because he was always good at getting a message across to other players.”

Lustig himself cited one of the main reasons for opting to stay put in Glasgow was the influence of Brendan Rodgers.

Believing that Celtic are “going places” under Rodgers, Lustig is one of a long line of players at the club who have firmly bought into the former Liverpool manager’s way of working.

With a Champions League group campaign under their belts and a domestic treble a firm possibility, it is a season that could yield riches for Celtic in more ways than one.

And Lagerback is well aware that the pull of silverware and success is always going to be a draw.

“Everyone in Sweden would recognise Celtic not just because they are still one of the iconic names in football but, of course, we had Henrik [Larsson] and Johan Mjallby there for a long time and they did not too badly.

“But when you are at a club of that magnitude and competing in European football and winning cups every year, I don’t think that you can ever really accept going to a club where you are not doing that.

“I also think that for any player if your family is settled and happy and you like the club, you believe their ambition matches your own, then it is an easy decision to stay.

“I still think that Mikael has a lot of football in him. He is coming into the peak years of his career but he is an athletic player and I still think that Celtic can see the best of him.”

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Meanwhile, Lagerback is also well qualified to advise Gordon Strachan’s side on the foibles of the national team and the repeated faltering when it comes to qualification for major international tournaments.

Lagerback took Sweden to five successive major tournaments and then made history with Iceland.

Quiet and calm with a serious demeanour, Lagerback was reluctant to meddle too much in someone else’s business, however, he did offer one observation.

“At Iceland and also with Sweden we had a lot of players who had gone on to play at some of the major European leagues and that was where the difference was,” he said.

“That experience is what made them assured and ready for the challenges of international football. With Scotland, in the past, that was maybe the case but more and more there are not Scottish player who are playing in some of the top leagues and that maybe is one thing to look at and what the reasons for that are.

“But what I would also say is that the structure of the game is good. I have been in Scotland for various training courses and seminars and I know some of the people at the SFA. I think the organisation is good and I think there are foundations there to build on.”