SHOOTING STAR

Tommy Gemmell was a powerful defender and an impressive goalscorer too

MOST strikers would love to score in two European Cup finals so it must be something special for a defender to achieve that.

That’s exactly what Tommy Gemmell did for Celtic and those strikes were two of the 63 goals he scored in 418 games for the club.

Sadly, the Celtic legend passed away on March 2, 2017 at the age of 73. And as the campaign gets well underway to build a statue of him in his home town of Craigneuk, we take a look back at one of the goalscorers from that famous May afternoon in Lisbon ‘67…

PRELUDE TO PARADISE

Before settling as a right-back, Tommy Gemmell originally played on the right wing when he was at school. He then moved to the back where he tried out on the left side of defence at his amateur club, Meadow Thistle – mainly because they were short in players for that position. It was late October 1961 when 17-year-old Gemmell eventually signed for Celtic, and he did so from Junior club, Coltness United. His arrival was also marked by the signing of Jimmy Johnstone, and they were the little and large of the Celtic team who became great friends – Gemmell standing tall at 6ft 2inches, and Johnstone just 5ft 4inches. In his autobiography Tommy Gemmell: Lion Heart, he recalled: “We were signed by Jimmy McGrory, the manager, and Sean Fallon. They told us that all we had at that point was potential, but that if we stuck in at the game and kept improving we could go places. Wee Jimmy and I had actually met previously – we had both been at Burnbank Technical College in Lanarkshire on day release from our apprenticeships … We would have a kickaround in the grounds of the college at break-time, playing with a tennis ball. Jimmy, even at 16, was unbelievable … Wee Jinky could already do everything he would do when he was 21 or 22 and a fully-fledged member of the first-team.”