Brendan Rodgers has revealed how he was rejected by Celtic as a teenage hopeful.
At the age of 14 a letter was sent from an uncle in Carnlough to Celtic Park informing the club of the promising midfielder.
Manchester United had already arranged a trial for the kid who would play for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as a youth.
Yes gaffer ???????? pic.twitter.com/pLBbLgwvHD
— A.C ART (@AidanCregan) September 2, 2017
Last night Rodgers was back in Belfast for a charity event and happy to field questions as part of a Question and Answer session.
According to the Daily Mail he was asked: “Would you swap your managerial career to go back and have a playing career?”
Rodgers replied: “I wouldn’t, no, because I wasn’t very good. My dream was to play for Celtic. My uncle wrote a letter to the club when I was 14 asking them to watch his nephew.
“Billy McNeill was manager at the time and we got a reply saying they’d seen me for Northern Ireland, so they already thought I wasn’t good enough! So now I’m lucky enough to manage Celtic — it’s my club.”
Rodgers has taken that early rejection well just as he did the blow of having his playing career ended by injury at the age of 20.
Tommy Burns helped his early coaching with the Irishman going on to revive Burns’ club and lead them to their first ever invincible domestic season.
Rodgers returns to Lennoxtown today to plan for Friday’s match at Hamilton followed by the Champions League opener against Paris St Germain in eight days time.