The current free-agent has lifted the lid on how his own immaturity ironically led to his inclusion Celtic’s first team match day squad.
Tony Watt will always be remembered as the boy who bagged Celtic’s winner against Barcelona in the Champions League in 2012.
Since leaving the Hoops in 2014 after failing to become a first team regular, Watt has played for his fair share of different clubs, most recently with OH Leuven in Belgium and is now on the look out for the 10th club of his career.
To the interest of Celtic fans, the 24-year-old explained that it was actually due to a suspension with the Celtic youth team that led to his opportunity to train with the first-team proper, going on to win his debut in the most unexpected of fashions.
Watt recalls how an over the top goal celebration in the Scottish Youth Cup semi-final in which he taunted an opponent led to a second yellow and his dismissal, meaning he would miss the chance to play in the Youth Cup Final.
“The ref ran over and booked me again and I got sent off,” Watt told Open Goal.
“You know what it’s like, if you do one bad thing you think, ‘I’m getting released!'”
Following his suspension from the youth team, then Celtic boss Neil Lennon decided to take Watt under his wing and allow him to train with the first-team in a bid to keep an eye on the youngster.
After just a week training with the senior squad, it was revealed to the forward on match-day that he was to be included on the bench, much to the youngster’s surprise.
On the moment that he realised he was to be substituted on Watt said: “Honest to god, scariest moment of my life.
“I was so scared, honestly, I ran on and I turned round and I’ve seen all the fans. I’m making my debut for Celtic here, what’s going on?”
If being on the pitch in itself was not overwhelming enough, Watt went on to score two goals in five minutes against Inverness, enjoying one of the best Celtic debuts of any youngster in recent times.
For a clearly wonderfully gifted goal scorer on his day, it is a shame to see a talent such as him go to waste as a free-agent.
There is no doubt he will be back in the game soon, having explained there are various offers on the table, but it is all about finding the right club to thrive at according to the Scotland international.
Scoring the winner against Barcelona may well be the best thing that has ever happened to Watt, but it was also arguably the worst thing for his career, having struggled to live up to the hype and expectation that arose following that one goal.
Watt went on to make only 38 appearances for the Hoops, netting eight goals before moving on to Standard Liege in 2014.
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