Arne Engels Breaks Silence on Ibrox Coin Incident: "It's Not Really Nice to Experience Things Like That"

Celtic midfielder Arne Engels has opened up for the first time on the incident at Ibrox last Thursday, which saw him struck with a coin.

As the Belgian went to take a corner on the far side of the pitch, an idiotic Rangers fan decided to launch a coin at Engels, which eventually hit him. Luckily, the damage wasn’t entirely significant, and the 21-year-old came away relatively unscathed.

The midfielder addressed the incident for the first time since it happened today.

He was put in front of the media at Lennoxtown ahead of Celtic’s game against Dundee United tomorrow evening and was asked how he is coping after the coin throw: “In the beginning, it was a bit sore, but at the end, it was okay,” said Engels (Celtic FC on YouTube).

“It’s not really nice to experience things like that. You just want to play your game and just want to enjoy the football. It was not really enjoyable that night, but it was not a really nice incident.

“You always need to switch on and that’s why you are a football player. You always need to think on the next situation and that’s what everybody is telling you.

“You need to think about the next situation. That’s I think what I did. In the end, you can always look back on it and think maybe it was not really nice or this or that.

“In the end, you need to perform. I think it was in the last ten minutes or something. You still need to play those ten minutes.

“It’s never nice, and it’s never good to happen in a football stadium. You are there to do your job and I think you guys (members of the media) never experienced something like it, that somebody will throw coins or something on your heads during your work. So it’s never really nice to see that happen and experiencing that, but in the end, you need to get through.”

Hopefully, incidents like the one at Ibrox last week can be stamped out of football for good. They benefit no one and are simply displays of hate.

The repercussions for the guilty Rangers ‘fan’ remain to be seen. A few weeks ago, Jim Goodwin suggested a lifetime ban for Aberdeen supporters who attempted to strike him with missiles.

A similar punishment wouldn’t be too extreme regarding the Engels incident.

Despite its severity, however, the youngster has dealt with it impeccably well. He handled himself brilliantly after Ibrox and impressed against St. Mirren on Sunday. Engels will look to carry such form into tomorrow evening.