Stevie Chalmers – In His Own Words

HIS 231 goals for Celtic included the most important goal in the club’s history, but you would never have known it when speaking to Stevie Chalmers.

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The Hoops goalscoring legend was one of the game’s most unassuming and humble characters and, if you asked his Lisbon Lion team-mates, they would have told you Stevie never liked to brag about that European Cup-winning strike or his achievements as a player.

They were, however, numerous and in his 12-year tenure as a Celtic player, he won four league championships, three Scottish Cups, four League Cups and that treasured European gong.

Blessed with pace, goalscoring ability and a remarkable versatility, Stevie Chalmers is a true Celtic great and here, from a 2007 Celtic View interview, are Stevie’s own reflections on a remarkable career.

AN early memory that I have of Celtic which immediately comes to mind is as a Junior player at Kirkintilloch Rob Roy.

One of our league games had just finished and they announced over the tannoy that the result from the League Cup final was Rangers 1 Celtic 7. There was a stunned silence and I could hardly believe it myself. I was a Celtic supporter, but the club I was playing for couldn’t be described as ‘Celtic-minded’, so I think the result shocked a few people that day. I still remember that announcement as clear as day and the looks on a few people’s faces. That was in 1957 and two years later, I had joined the club myself.

THE highlight of my Celtic career has to be scoring the winning goal against Inter Milan in the European Cup final. I don’t think you can get a better highlight than that. You work every day from when you’re a kid, building yourself up to that kind of challenge and it was something I had dreamed of.