Henrik's 50th
With ticket sales approaching 50,000 and the weather favourable the Celtic v Manchester United Legends Challenge match in aid of Oxfam’s East African Famine Appeal is shaping up as a very special occasion.
The match is certainly for a very good cause and I think that it displays the spirit of our football club. We were set up as a charitable organisation and it’s nice to see the charity work of the club continuing
When I heard that John Kennedy was giving his share of the money to Oxfam, I thought that gesture alone should hopefully bring as large a crowd as possible – an amazing gesture from what seems like an amazing guy.
With John’s career cruelly taken away from him, I think it’s only right that we get to show what we, as fans, think of him and his gesture. I know it’s easy to make the following statement given that we will never know, but I really did think he would have been good enough to be a mainstay of our team for a long time – perhaps even turn into club captain.
I remember watching Kennedy make his debut. At 16 years old, it was obvious that he was further ahead of other guys round about his age and he never looked out of place in the first team.
If I remember correctly, John was the youngest Celtic débutante since Roy Aitken.
For the match itself, it is intended as a fun evening and I suspect it will be mainly attended by parents who want to take their kids along to Parkhead – including mine. My Dad will be going with me but I am 28 so don’t know if that still counts as an old fashioned parent and child type entry?
For Celtic, we have Martin O’Neill up to manage our legends side and with the word legend being used for pretty much anyone who has ever carried out a good deed in their lives, Martin is a man who truly can be called a Celtic legend. Yes, he never stayed for as long as guys like Paul McStay but the achievements are what what makes him a legend.
A reminder of the things that did for our club? Three League titles, six domestic cup finals with 4 wins and of course the 2003 UEFA cup final. Add in keeping Celtic in Europe beyond Christmas for the first time is 23 years, not to mention knocking Barcelona out of the UEFA cup the year after taking the team to the Seville final.
On the pitch, so far, we know that we will have Lubo Moravcik, who can forget his two goals in the 5-1 game v Rangers shortly after he signed for us or when he trapped a bouncing ball with his backside? There are so many Lubo moments that it would be impossible to write about them all but hopefully, we see a few special Lubo moments on the night.
We also have most of our current management team due to play for us, Neil Lennon, Alan Thompson and of course big Johan Mjallby – with the amount that Neil Lennon has put up with over the years as a player and manager for us, I am surprised that he hasn’t cracked up and gone somewhere else a long long time ago – I doubt I’d be as strong a character as him under the circumstances.
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JK is the youngest player ever to play a competative game for us.
JFK was the youngest to play for Celtic, later in that season under Dalglish Mark Fozzy Fotheringham took the honour.