‘Had to be’: Leigh Griffiths names striker who scored just eight Celtic goals as his hero

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Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths grew up idolising Derek Riordan.

Celtic have had a whole host of top strikers play for them over the years, with fans almost spoiled by the quality of goalscorers at Parkhead.

Henrik Larsson and Mark Viduka are two modern heroes, whilst the likes of Jimmy McGrory, Bobby Lennox, Jimmy Quinn, Stevie Chalmers and Sandy McMahon were goal machines too.

Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard have been Celtic’s goal heroes in recent years, but few would really think of Derek Riordan in the same way.

Signed from Hibernian in 2006, Riordan had been a star at Easter Road with 64 goals in 146 games, emerging as one of the top talents in Scottish football.

At 23, Riordan was ready for the next step, and joined Celtic in a cut-price deal – but he failed to live up to his billing, scoring just eight goals in 32 games for the Bhoys before returning to Hibs in 2008.

Riordan again impressed with Hibs, but his career fizzled out after a move to China in 2011, and some will feel that Riordan is a case of unfulfilled potential.

On Monday, current Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths fielded questions from fans on Instagram, and as noted by The Scottish Sun, he was asked who his footballing idol was when he was growing up.

Griffiths did name Michael Owen as one player he loved, but also named Riordan having grown up as a Hibs fan, with the attacker clearly better remembered at Easter Road than Parkhead.

Griffiths has ended up following in Riordan’s footsteps by playing for Hibs and Celtic, but he’s having much more success than Riordan – and Griffiths will surely be very proud of that having grown up loving Riordan.