Henrik Larsson: A Celtic Legend

The summer of 1997 was a pivotal time in the history of Celtic Football Club.  A groundbreaking one which formed a new era for the club.  On the back of Rangers’ record-equalling ninth title win in a row, radical changes had to be made.  The likeable manager Tommy Burns was sacrificed to make way for a new man in charge but the managerial vacancy wasn’t filled until early July when Dutchman Wim Jansen, conqueror of Celtic in the European Cup Final in Milan twenty-seven years earlier, assumed his position as Head Coach alongside General Manager Jock Brown.

The early signs looked good, pre-season form was good and the signings were promising. Darren Jackson, Regi Blinker, Craig Burley, Stephane Mahe, Jonathan Gould were all drafted in.  But there was one other transfer which stood out, one which proved to be the most astute piece of business the club has ever, or will ever make.  USA ’94 star Henrik Larsson arrived from Feyenoord for the paltry sum of £650,000 on the eve of the new season.

Even then, it was a great deal.  Seven years later when the Swede left for pastures new, it turned out to be the deal of the century.  A lot of fans hadn’t heard of the dreadlocked Larsson.  For others, the only memories of him were his appearances for Sweden in the World Cup three years earlier, helping his country to a third placed finish.  He resumed his largely quiet spell at Dutch outfit Feyenoord, scoring 26 goals in 101 league games in Holland before his transfer to Celtic Park on 25 July 1997 - a date all Celtic fans should remember forever.

His debut wasn’t the most impressive start to a Celtic career – the struggling hoops were level 1-1 with Hibs when Jansen handed Henrik with his first chance to impress.  He replaced Andreas Thom on the hour mark, but the drama was to unfold a mere 15 minutes later when he gave the ball directly to Hibs’ Chic Charnley, who curled a 25 yard effort into the bottom corner and condemn Celtic to the worst possible start in their quest to stop the ten.  It didn’t get any better a week later when Dunfermline left Celtic Park with all three points.  But the turning point in the season came the following week when the Celts sprung into action when the hoops lined up against Kilmarnock.  Jonathan Gould made a tremendous save at one end, before Larsson’s superb diving header made it 1-0.  It was to be the first of many.  The first of 242 in fact.  A figure no one could ever envisage the Swede making after his turbulent start in the bumble-bee shirt at Easter Road.  Darren Jackson made the game safe in the second half, a win which sparked a 12 match unbeaten run.

For Larsson, the goals kept coming.  Matchwinners against Aberdeen and Motherwell were followed by braces against Kilmarnock and Dundee United.  A week later, he helped the club to their first silverware of the season and his first of many medals he would win as a Celtic player.  A 3-0 win in a scintillating performance in the Coca-Cola Cup Final at Ibrox was just the tonic for the Bhoys in a success-starved period, and it was largely down to Larsson’s influence.

The new year of 1998 saw the leadership of the then Bell’s Premier Division title see-saw between Celtic and Rangers, and it all boiled down to one day.  9 May 1998.  Celtic were at home to St Johnstone and needed a win to guarantee a first title in ten years, and stop Rangers from clinching their record-breaking tenth in a row.  It took Larsson a whole 3
minutes to get on the scoresheet, unleashing an unstoppable shot from the edge of the box after cutting inside.  The ground erupted, and Celtic were on their way to the getting their hands on the title.  Fellow Scandinavian Harald Brattbakk made it 2-0 in the second half and the relief was tangible.  The bhoys had done it, and Larsson’s influence was again, crucial.

Summer of 1998 saw Celtic in turmoil once again as Wim Jansen left the club two days after clinching the title.  Dr Jozef Venglos took over the reigns but it was Rangers who looked to be favourites for the title this time around, after Dick Advocaat replaced Walter Smith and a host of big name players flocked to Ibrox.  This was the season when Henrik Larsson really made his mark as a Celtic player.  The 1998/99 saw the birth of the new ‘SPL’ , a season to forget in terms of the destination of the league title, and the way in which it was won.  However, as a Celtic fan, the most pleasing aspect of this season was the entertainment factor, and Larsson’s goals.  The injury-ravaged bhoys weren’t at full strength for large parts of the season and dropped points right left and centre. Demolitions of Motherwell (7-1) and Rangers (5-1) were memorable high points of that campaign, and Larsson’s 29 league goals in a single season set a new precedent in terms of goalscoring.  Even the English media began linking him to clubs down South.  He was very much looking the part.  The only disappointing thing that year was to see him not come away with any medals to match his achievements.

Summer 1999 saw yet another revolution at Paradise, this time with the ‘dream team’ pairing of old pals John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish lining up to have a crack at snatching the league away from Ibrox.  Larsson’s strike buddy Simon Donnelly headed south to Sheffield Wednesday, with Mark Viduka starting his first full season alongside the Swedish superstar.  The first few games were certainly memorable.  The new signings seemed to be bedding in well, with the Larsson-Viduka partnership looking red-hot.

Disaster struck on a late October’s night in Lyon when a tangle of legs with Lyon full-back Serge Blanc broke Larsson’s left leg and Celtic fans around the globe were in a state of shock.  Celtic’s season subsequently fell apart at the seams and short-term replacement Ian Wright failed to make any sort of impact as Rangers romped to a second consecutive title win, with Celtic limping in 21 points behind.  The season ended on a positive note for Celtic though – Larsson made his comeback on the final day of the 99/00 season, coming on for the last 20 minutes against Dundee United to rapturous applause in a bid to prove his fitness to the two Swedish national team managers ahead of their imminent Euro 2000 campaign.

For the fourth time in as many years, Celtic were forced to hire a new manager following the exit of John Barnes in February of 2000.  This time they got it right, with Martin O’Neill installed as the new manager along with his team of John Robertson and Steve Walford.  The mood in the camp was good.  Larsson came back from Euro 2000 unscathed and with a goal to his name against the notoriously stubborn Italians.  The moody Mark Viduka was replaced by Chris Sutton as O’Neill began to shape his own dream team around Larsson.  Another new era was here, but this one was the most promising yet.

If you could pinpoint a day when Larsson confirmed his legendary status in Paradise, it would be 27 August 2000.  A day not many hoops fans will ever forget.  The first Old Firm game of any season is always eagerly anticipated, to see how new signings adapt etc, but no one could ever envisage how this one would unravel.  A 6-2 mauling of the seemingly invincible Gers, who finished streets ahead of the bhoys just three short months earlier.

Larsson’s two goals were typical.  The first of which was simply a dream, and possibly the best goal of his career.  After Sutton held the ball up, he knocked it to Larsson who nutmegged Konterman and sublimely chip the despairing Stefan Klos.  His second made it 5-2.  For 5 foot 9 inches, Larsson was superb in the air, and his header in a crowded penalty area was typical of his ability to escape his markers, no matter how physical they were.

Larsson’s endless list of attributes weren’t just confined to the pitch. He turned down numerous opportunities of endorsements and advertising campaigns in order to spend more time with his family.  His son Jordan was born shortly after Larsson Snr’s arrival in Glasgow in July 1997 and subsequently grew up with a Glaswegian accent.  He was always one to honour a contract too and stayed by his word even in the most testing of times.  When he signed his final contract with Celtic in 2001, he stated that he would leave when it expired in 2004 and no one could convince him to stay.  That was the case later on in his career when he played for Manchester United, and with Sir Alex Ferguson’s men challenging on three fronts as the season gathered pace in March, Larsson reiterated his desire to return to Sweden to resume the new season with his first professional club Helsingborg BK.

As O’Neill led Celtic to a historic treble in 2001, Larsson ended the season with an amazing 53 goals in all competitions, the only major disappointment not seeing off Bordeaux to continue a promising-looking UEFA Cup run.

It wasn’t long before Larsson would get to play on the biggest stage of all in club football, the coveted Champions League.  For the first time in the club’s history, Celtic were playing Champions League football, entertaining Juventus, Porto and Rosenborg and were desperately unlucky not to progress.  Even after dropping out of the Champions League, the prize was to face Valencia in the UEFA Cup, arguably the most difficult tie of all. Larsson scored in the second leg to take the tie to penalties but the brave hoops bowed out.

It was a sample of European football that Larsson got the taste for, and as the league title was wrapped up again comfortably in 2002, a new European challenge got under way.  A bitterly disappointing defeat to FC Basle in August 2002 left Celtic with the consolation of UEFA Cup football to contest, but what a second prize that turned out to be, as a
Larsson-inspired Celtic went all the way to the final in Seville.

He scored no fewer than seven goals in getting there, including the most dramatic
and most arguably most important goal of his life in the semi-final against Boavista, and another two in the final against FC Porto, where he played possibly the best game of his Celtic career and still ended up on the losing side in such painful circumstances.  To compound the agony, Celtic finished trophyless that year, for the first time under O’Neill’s stewardship.

2003/04 was Larsson’s last season at Celtic Park.  There was no going back, no change of heart.  So it had to end in silverware.  There would be no other fitting way of seeing the great man off.  And that’s exactly how it did end.  Rangers were put to the sword again at Ibrox in his Old Firm farewell, notching his 15th goal in 29 cross-Clyde tussles.  He bagged his 35th and final European goal at home to Villarreal in April 2004, before his tear-jerking Parkhead goodbye in front of a packed house against Dundee United.  His last act was at Hampden, where he inspired the Hoops to come from behind and clinch the Scottish Cup against Dunfermline to finish on a breathtaking 242 goals in 315 appearances.  A class act.

Even after his departure, fans chanted his name, and watched with delight as he turned on the style at Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006, where he scored in his third World Cup – a last minute equaliser against England.

Perhaps the best feeling of all was seeing him come on as a substitute for Barcelona against Arsenal in his final game for Barcelona in May 2006 and swing the game in the Catalonians’ favour, bagging a Champions League medal for himself before heading off home to Sweden to play for Helsingborg.  Even now he is spearheading the Swedish outfit to the UEFA Cup last 32 at the age of 36.

After leaving Celtic, he kept making headlines by scoring and influencing matches on the biggest stages of all and that’s the mark of class.  The mark of a legend.  It’s said that legends never die, and I suspect that Henrik Larsson’s name will be echoed around Celtic Park for a long time yet.

Written by hebburnbhoy
(More Than 90 Minutes Celtic Fanzine)