Jonny Hayes has recalled the time he turned his back on Celtic.
As a schoolboy in Dublin the winger was wanted by a dozen clubs who all wanted to lure him across the Irish Sea.
Celtic were competing for the teenager alongside a number of English Premier League clubs in a cut throat business.
While the Irish card opens doors for Celtic a number of factors come into play before a kid makes his decision with Hayes taking the tourist route to the hoops via Reading, Inverness and Aberdeen.
“I was very close to signing for Celtic,” he told The Sun after officially signing as a Celtic player. “I had been on trial three or four times.
“I will never forget the day I left. I was at the club shop and Tommy Burns was there looking after me, giving me tracksuits for people back in Ireland.
“It was very close, I felt I had made my mind up. I had the chance to go to ten or 12 clubs.
“I narrowed it down to either Celtic or Manchester City. I spoke to my family and decided to go to Celtic. I didn’t even want to go on trial to Reading.
“I can remember speaking to my dad and saying, ‘I don’t want to go, I’ve made up my mind’ but six days later Brendan had changed my view completely. I told my dad, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere else. I just want to go to Reading and work for him’.
“We worked together for only 13 or 14 months before he moved on to Chelsea, but I enjoyed it every day.
“It was something I have always had in the back of my mind. Would I get the chance to work with him again?”
As Celtic closed in on an invincible season Hayes emerged as the outstanding player outwith the hoops in the SPFL.
Goals against Celtic last month in the SPFL and Scottish Cup confirmed the quality of the Aberdeen winger who was wanted by a number of Championship sides.
Another call from Rodgers confirmed that Celtic was the place to be with Hayes delighted to finally seal a deal that he avoided as a kid.