It is the dream of many Irish footballers- last night Liam Scales turned it into reality as he made his Celtic debut in the 3-0 win over Raith Rovers in the Premier Sports Cup.
At the age of 23 the defender is relatively old to be emerging from the League of Ireland but that didn’t prevent him from putting in a very effective 30 minute shift.
Playing at left-back with Adam Montgomery pushed further forward Scales wasn’t prepared to sit back and make a cosy error-free debut on his big night.
Wishing Scalesy all the best as he makes his debut for Celtic ? pic.twitter.com/vAJXX3rXtA
— Shamrock Rovers FC ?? (@ShamrockRovers) September 23, 2021
Shamrock Rovers picked up an Irish record fee of £600,000 for the defender but it seems that more than that transfer fee is invested in Scales.
League of Ireland players have been viewed as projects and punts by clubs in Scotland and England, a gamble that may or may not come off.
Paddy McCourt, Niall McGinn and Michael Duffy all took the route from Derry City to Celtic with mixed results, if it turns out well for Scales Celtic could be perfectly placed to mine a rich seam of talent.