AN ALL-TIME FAVORITE CELTIC XI, WHO MAKES YOURS?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Jul 30
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 31
I had an interesting chat with my dad the other day. Like so many random conversations I have with friends and family these days, about an hour or so later, I thought, “there’s a blog in that!”
So, to fill you in on what I’m on about. My wee brother is putting together an art project (he might be 6ft but he’ll always be my “wee brother”) which will eventually go on display in my office during my future appearances on ACSOM and Celtic Down Under.
My Favorite Celtic XI was Not an Easy List to Make
As part of this he asked me to name my all-time best Celtic XI.
However, the more I thought about it, the harder it became to categorize. How could I exclude Jimmy McGrory, Celtic’s all-time record goal scorer, despite the fact that he passed away a little over a year before I was born?
Then there’s other legends like John Thomson, a goalkeeper who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of Celtic. Jimmy Johnstone, arguably our most naturally gifted player of all time. Billy McNeil, the man who came to embody everything good about Celtic, and of course Bertie Auld, who I never saw play but had the pleasure of his company on a number of occasions and is, without a doubt, one of the funniest men I ever met.
No, there’s no way I could, in good conscience, claim to know an all-time eleven greatest players to play for Celtic, since so many greats either retired or passed away before my 41 years on Earth so far even began.
So, I decided to take a different approach.
Instead of focusing on talent alone, I’m going to name my “favorite Celtic XI”. Not necessarily the best, or most talented players to ever wear the hoops, but the ones who, in my relatively short time of following the club (a little over 3 decades) have left the biggest impression on me.
I guarantee you probably won’t agree with this list, but I hope you’ll at least enjoy reading my rationale for each choice.
Anyway, that’s enough rambling, let’s get onto my picks, and why I picked them.
Goalkeeper: Joe Hart
Now, is Joe Hart Celtic’s best goalkeeper in my 36 years of following the club? No. Truth be told, on pure ability, on a good day, he barely makes the top 5.
But that’s not the point. I love Joe Hart because of the player he became after he joined Celtic.
In the future, when we talk about players who weren’t born into a “Celtic-minded” family but absolutely bought into what our club, our fans and our culture is all about, Joe Hart will be held up as the gold standard.
We took a guy who was Tottenham’s 4th choice goalkeeper, and we gave him a chance at redemption. At the end of the day, you don’t get to play more than 70 games for England if you’re a dud, so we knew he was a decent goalkeeper.
Celtic fans showed faith in the big man, we believed in him when he needed it most. And he rewarded us tremendously. A string of top-level performances on the pitch, were matched by his advocacy for Celtic and for us, the supporters, off it. Joe Hart became one of us. He’ll probably remain a Celtic fan forever.
Everybody loves a comeback story, and Joe Hart wrote his own during his short but memorable time at Celtic.
Left Back: Kieran Tierney
I guess you could say, in terms of upbringing, Kieran Tierney is the inverse of Joe Hart. From the moment he was born, he has lived and breathed Celtic. I think we all know already he’s our next club captain, and also possibly the finest attacking full-back to wear the Hoops since the legendary Danny McGrain.
That’s not why he makes my favorite Celtic XI though. Like Joe Hart, Kieran Tierney knows what it means to the Celtic support to play for our club, to win trophies, to bring joy to so many people in challenging times. So, upon leaving Arsenal, where I think it’s common knowledge he made a lot more money than he currently does a Celtic, Tierney proved that there is still room for sentimentality, for compassion in top flight football.
He put his love of Celtic above his own financial gain, and however his second spell with us ultimately pans out, he’ll always have my gratitude and respect for doing that.
Centre Back 1: Bobo Balde
Every team, no matter how much skill, class and finesse they have, needs a destroyer. An absolute beast who just annihilates everything that has the audacity to come near him. In the early 2000s, Bobo Balde was Celtic’s destroyer.
The cries of “Bobo’s Gonnae Get Ye!” may have been a riff on a similar chant Celtic fans had for Jim Brogan back in the 70s, but it was no less appropriate,
Nothing got past the big man, and like a true Celtic legend he saved some of his finest acts of brutality for games against Rangers (Requiescat in Pace). There have been plenty of better footballers who have played at centre half for Celtic, but nobody quite matched Bobo’s sheer intimidation factor.
Centre Back 2: Johan Mjallby
Speaking of intimidating presences, I couldn’t possibly name my favorite Celtic team of all time without including big “Drago” himself.
Most of the 1990s were a dark time to support Celtic, but big Johan gave me one of my finest memories of following our great club on his debut, which also happened to be my birthday.
A tough-tackling midfielder who had scored a sensational winner for Sweden against England in a Euro qualifier a couple of months previously, no one was quite sure how he would fit into Josef Venglos' entertaining but somewhat scattershot Celtic side.
Well, mere minutes into his debut, an Old Firm derby, as it was called then, against Rangers (Requiescat in Pace), he absolutely scythed Jorg Albertz.
Albertz was one of the most consistently dangerous players for Rangers in those derbies back then. Rangers fans nicknamed him “The Hammer” on account of his ferocious shot and no-nonsense approach to the game.
Well, after his first encounter with Celtic’s “Drago”, The Hammer barely kicked a ball for the rest of the game as Celtic went on to win 5-1.
Since that day, possibly the best birthday I’ve ever had, Johan Mjallby’s place in my favorite Celtic XI was guaranteed.
Right Back: Alistair Johnston
Our current Canadian right back is one of only two present day Celtic players, along with Kieran Tierney to make it into my favorite Celtic XI.
You’re probably noticing a pattern here, but in addition to his excellent defensive attributes, his dynamic, overlapping attacking play, and his overall quality, any guy who can casually down a bottle of “man of the match” champagne while stunned media look on will do for me.
They say you have to be slightly mad to be a defender, and I think Johnston had just the right level of “slightly mental” in his game to make my favorite Celtic team.
Alongside Kieran Tierney, if he stays around for the long-term, Alistair Johnston is one of the natural leaders on the pitch who will carry Celtic onto even greater achievements in the years ahead.
Defensive Midfield 1: Scott Brown
His goal and subsequent invention of “The Broony” celebration in a Glasgow derby back in 2011, and the look of sheer disgust it drew from the subnormal slime that is El-Hadji Diouff, would almost be enough in its own right to earn iconic status with many Celtic fans.
However, Scott Brown is so much more than that.
Powerful, deceptively skillful in his use of the ball, and an absolute master of “sh*t-housery”, I think Broony is an easy choice for many modern Celtic fans when picking the best players they’ve seen wear The Hoops.
I mean what other player could annoy Rangers that much that they would spend 7 million on a mediocre midfielder just because Brown baited him into punching him?
Defensive Midfield 2: Stilyan Petrov
Back when I had a season ticket in the early 2000s, Stilyan Petrov was always my bet at the stadium bookies for first and last goal. On so many occasions, he delivered.
For financial reasons alone, he’s up there. But Petrov scored so many important goals in crucial games for us throughout that period.
Then, there’s also his off the field struggles. After leaving Celtic, his long-running and ultimately victorious battle against cancer showed that his indomitable spirit transcended the football pitch.
Today, he continues to take part in numerous charitable initiatives, helping others in their own cancer battles. He’s also a regular guest at Celtic Park, showing that his love for our club and us, the fans, remains as strong as ever.
Attacking Midfield 1: Shunsuke Nakamura
Yesterday marked 20 years since Shunsuke Nakamura, Celtic’s first Japanese player joined the club. On that very same day, I was headed in the opposite direction. I arrived later that same day in Japan for the very first time.
That two-week trip, that doubled up as a holiday and a kendo training camp, was the start of my own love affair with Japan, which saw me move here permanently a little over a year later.
However, Nakamura’s addition to this team isn’t purely for my own selfish, sentimental reasons. I think the commentator, Ian Crocker spoke for us all, when he said:
“Nakamuuuuraaaaaa!”
That goal against Rangers (Requiescat in Pace) in 2008, coupled with an historic free-kick against Man Utd, on my birthday again, in 2006, gave me two of my favorite memories of following Celtic from Japan. On both occasions, it was the middle of the night. My neighbours probably didn’t approve of the noise I made as those goals flew in, and to this day, I couldn’t care less!
Attacking Midfield 2: Lubomir Moravcik
There’s been a lot of bristling from some fans recently because we “only spent 250,000 on Hayato Inamura”. My response is: “Well, Lubo only cost 350,000!”
An extreme comparison I know, but seriously, has there ever been a bigger bargain in Celtic’s history than 350,000 for Lubo Moravcik?
Lubo’s first two Celtic goals came on my birthday, the same game where Johan Mjallby made his debut.
However, my personal favorite memory of Lubo is a bit more obscure.
It was a cold, wet night, early in 2001. We were well ahead in the league, but it wasn’t a done deal yet.
We had a midweek home game against Motherwell, who had the late, great Andy Goram (probably still the 2nd best goalkeeper I’ve ever seen in the flesh after Oliver Kahn) in goal, and he was having the game of his life.
Celtic absolutely battered Motherwell that night, but we just couldn’t find a way through. My season ticket at that time was in block 114, just behind Goram’s goal. For most of the 2nd half, it was an infuriating watch.
And then Lubo entered as a late substitute. On 83 minutes, he stroked an exquisite free kick into the top corner. Even a keeper of Goram’s immense talent barely had time to move.
As the Celtic players, and indeed the entire stadium erupted in joy, I remember the image of a forlorn Andy Goram catching the ball as it rebounded from the net and slamming it into the ground with such temper that he launched it about 40 years up field!
That was the night I became certain the League title was coming back to Paradise. A treble soon followed.
Centre Forward 1: Henrik Larsson
Let’s be honest, any top Celtic side of the past 30 years will always have Larsson +1 as their strike force.
Those 7 years in which our magnificent number 7 gave us so much happiness and so, so many memories, were perhaps the greatest time to be a Celtic fan. The 6-2 game, stopping the 10, winning the Treble, getting to Seville, skelping Souness’ Blackburn. These are just some of the highlights.
My favorite Henrik Larsson game though, was the League Cup Final of 2001. It was the first time I ever attended a Cup Final as a Celtic supporter. We beat Kilmarnock 3-0, and Henrik scored all three. It was an utterly dominant performance from arguably the greatest player ever to wear The Hoops, and undoubtedly, the greatest player I ever saw play competitively for Celtic.
Center Forward 2: Harald Brattbakk
You might say we are going from the sublime to the ridiculous here, but this is my list, and I’m calling the shots!
Harald wasn’t Celtic’s greatest striker. He wasn’t even a great striker, but he scored a goal that will still be remembered 100 years from now. His decisive strike, the second in a 2-0 win over St. Johnstone denied Rangers (Requiescat in Pace) the record-breaking tenth title in a row.
It was also the first time since I became a Celtic supporter in 1989, that I had actually seen Celtic win the league.
Sack the Board, Celts for Change, The Rebels Have Won, the Arrival of Fergus McCann, the new Celtic Park. The 90s was a chain of constant upheaval and epoch defining events for Celtic. But Harald Brattbakk’s goal was the culmination of it all. His goal ensured our first league title in a decade. It broke Rangers’ monopoly on Scottish football. You could even argue that it was a catalyst in their massive overspending in the years that followed, and which, ultimately led to their demise.
So, in other words, Harald Brattbakk indirectly killed Rangers!
So, he’ll always be a hero in my eyes for that. And from the couple of times I met him, I can honestly say, that honor couldn’t be bestowed on a nicer guy!
Well, that’s my favorite Celtic XI. Hopefully, with a new season ahead, it gives us all a bit of food for thought. Thanks for reading. Hail Hail!
