Jurgen Klopp Hails Mika Baur's Bold Move to Celtic

Jurgen Klopp has hailed Mika Baur’s decision to swap the Bundesliga for Celtic, rewarding the midfielder’s bold move to Glasgow with a first senior Germany call-up.

The 22-year-old is one of the eye-catching names in Klopp’s opening squad selection as national team boss, a sprawling 44-man pool split across two groups. One will face the Netherlands and Greece. The other, featuring Baur, is lined up to take on Serbia and Greece, with the Celtic man due to report for duty on September 28.

Klopp has already been on the phone to his new call-up, and the conversation went beyond tactics and formations.

“I consider him really exciting,” he told STV Sport. “He’s absolutely up for it. We also spoke on the phone about the weather in Glasgow – something I know well from Liverpool. With this move, he’s taken on a very challenging step.”

That “challenging step” was Baur’s summer switch from newly-promoted Bundesliga side Paderborn to Celtic in a deal worth around £6 million, after he had been a near ever-present in their successful 2025/26 campaign. Rather than easing his way into Scottish football, he has torn straight into it.

Under Martin O’Neill, Baur has quickly become a key figure in midfield, to the extent that he has recently kept high-profile summer signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain out of the starting XI. The German’s influence is already being felt: he was named man of the match after scoring the winner against St Johnstone earlier this month, a performance that underlined why Celtic were willing to invest heavily in him.

The highs have been mixed with harsh lessons. Baur played the full 90 minutes in Celtic’s 3-0 Glasgow Derby defeat at Ibrox, a bruising introduction to one of European football’s most unforgiving fixtures. Klopp, who knows all about hostile atmospheres from his Liverpool days, clearly sees value in that kind of education.

On the international stage, Baur is not stepping into a completely unfamiliar environment. He has already represented Germany at under-21 level, sharing a dressing room with Said El Mala, Finn Jeltsch and Brajan Gruda. All three have now been elevated by Klopp as well, a clear signal that the new coach is ready to trust the next wave.

If Baur wins his first senior cap in the coming fixtures, he will follow a rare but notable path. He would join Andreas Thom and Andreas Hinkel as German internationals who have worn the Celtic shirt – a small, select group that suddenly looks ready to grow again.