Nicolas Kühn was already a great talent in Germany, when he was still a child. It didn’t always go according to plan. He found his luck Celtic Glasgow. The sports show has boldly about that Old firm spoken, about goals and dreams.
On the first day of the year, Nicolas Kühn had a visit from the family, together they celebrated his birthday. He doesn’t like to speak about the day after. It was not due to the gifts and not due to alcohol. He doesn’t drink. On the second day of the year there was a football game, the course of which was quite annoying for Kühn and his employer Celtic Glasgow. Against the Rangers, The big rivals lost 0: 3.
In the seconds after the final whistle, television cameras held all the festival: tens of thousands, the cheered. Many wore something in blue: jersey, scarf, hat. Blue is the color of the rangers. Of course there were also a lot of people who did not wear blue. Kühn belonged to them. He wore a green and white jersey, number ten on his back. He didn’t cheer. Nobody in green and white cheered.
A quarter of a year later, a few days before the reunion with the Rangers (Sun., 16.03.2025, from 1.30 p.m.), sits Kühn, 25, in a room on the Celtic training area and looks into a laptop camera. The club’s logo can be seen on the wall behind him. In an interview with the sports show, he also talks about his first defeat in an old firm, as the derby between Celtic and the Rangers is called. The defeat, says Kühn, he has “Painted out of the head. As much as possible.”
The Old Firm – much more than just football
Celtic and the Rangers are associated with mutual aversion. Their rivalry is not that only feeds from sporty duels, it will also be a religious, a ideological component. Celtic against Rangers also says: Catholics against Protestants. It’s also about politics.
Kühn has not been at Celtic for long, he came from Rapid Vienna in January 2024, but what an old firm means people in the city of Glasgow, nobody had to explain to him. “Every derby is incredible”he says. “You are looking forward to that.”
In Kühn’s time at Celtic, the game was an exception at the very beginning of the year. Previously, he had played against the Rangers five times with his club, but never lost. This is also why Kühn and his employer have already won three titles together. This year you could become a master again. The lead over the Rangers is 16 points three games before the end of the regular season.
Then something begins that you call master round in Scotland. The mode is complicated to understand the result easily: Master almost always becomes Celtic, twelve times in the past thirteen seasons. Hard to imagine that the series ends this season.
Like Arjen Robben, only with hair
At Celtic, they dream of the 55th championship title, and that has a lot to do with bold. This season he scored 18 goals in 41 competitive games and gave 13 templates. This is well received by the fans. You have killed her own song, whose surname you naturally pronounce your own song in Scotland without umlaut. He is about a wing player who likes to leave his wing, who scores and prepares goals. In the end they sing: “Super Nicolas Kuhn.”
And in fact this is a movement that Kuhn, who actually called boldly, likes to do. If he leaves his position on the right on the field to dribble the ball into the center and then end it with his left foot, this is not a good sign for the opponent. That is reminiscent of Arjen Robben, only the hairstyle is different.
Kühn played with Musiala, but he had to wait for the breakthrough
Kühn was already a great talent in Germany, and he was not a teenager yet. At nine he moved from a Lower Saxony village club to FC St. Pauli, two years later to Hannover 96, at 15 he went to RB Leipzig, where Ralf Rangnick became aware of him. The “picture” wrote: “Rangnick steals this super bubi”.
This was followed by years in which Kühn won the “Fritz Walter Medal” in gold, an award for the best youth player of a year. However, he did not make the breakthrough in Leipzig, where Rangnick’s counterpressing teaching did not match the dribbler Kühn. He also did not succeed in Ajax Amsterdam, where he played in the reserve team, but not with the professionals.
And then there was the time in Munich, it was not an easy one. Kühn’s father died. Life in the city was characterized by pandemic. And muscle injuries plagued him. He played in the second team, sometimes alongside Jamal Musiala. Hans-Dieter Flick, then coach of Bayern professionals, never started.
Jamal Musiala (left) and Nicolas Kühn together for the second team of FC Bayern Munich
It was years of puzzling. Sometimes it was discussed in them whether the “Super-Bubi” Kühn might not be the extraordinary talent for which experts had kept him so early. Manuel Baum couldn’t understand that. As a coach in the Bundesliga, he worked for Augsburg and Schalke, Kühn trained in the U20 national team. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” said Baum the sentence: “I think he was too good for far too long.”
Kühn spoke of the National team
It was only in the 2021/22 season that Kühn played in a first team, when he was under contract with Erzgebirge Aue in the 2nd league. In 27 games he scored three goals and gave four templates, and his dribbles also noticed. However, he also noticed that in interviews he called missions in the Champions League and in the national team.
The year in Aue has him “Good done”says Kühn. “It was about proving that men’s football is possible and not somewhere with a second team.” He succeeded. From Aue he went to Rapid Vienna, where he first played in a first division and in the European Cup. After a year and a half he moved to Scotland.
Kühn says: “Shows what Celtic is for a giant club”
Kühn recently avoided the city center in Glasgow because one always recognized him at some point. He says: “Of course, this shows what Celtic is for a giant club, how people love football here.” When shopping, he prefers to wear a hat.
Kühn has no interest in hiding on the soccer field. It was also to be observed in the Champions League. In the preliminary round, he played with Celtic against his ex-club Leipzig and scored two goals. Bayern prevailed in the playoffs. Kühn was allowed to cheer over his own goal. “Beautiful moments” Be it, says Kühn. Not more. Because of satisfaction.
“Whoever loves football” says Kühn, must “Have been here in Glasgow.” It is possible that he will stay with Celtic for a few more years. His contract ends in 2029. But maybe he will play somewhere else, he dreams of a contract in a top 5 league and the national team. He says: “Let’s see what comes first.”