Which famous Celt made his debut on this day in 1963?
On this day, 55 years ago, Celtic’s greatest ever player Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Jonhstone made his debut for the club, going on to enjoy a 14 year stint with the Hoops over which he won 19 trophies.
His debut came in a game against Kilmarnock, an embarrassing away defeat in which Celtic ran out 6-0 losers. Following such a poor loss, few Celtic fans would have predicted the sort of career that Johnstone was about to embark on in the green and white, however, they were about to be pleasantly surprised.
Johnstone, along with the majority of the Lisbon Lions went on to help the club capture nine league trophies in a row, the first Scottish team to ever achieve such a feat, matched eventually by Rangers a couple decade later in the 1980s.
During his time at Celtic Park, on top of the nine consecutive league titles, Jinky won four Scottish Cups, five League Cups and famously, the European Cup in 1967, becoming a member of the first British team to win the illustrious continental competition.
In doing so, as Celtic’s best player, Johnstone finished third place in the 1967 Ballon d’Or competition behind none other than Florian Albert of Ferencvarosi and Bobby Charlton of Manchester United.
In total, Johnstone bagged 130 goals for the Bhoys across nearly 500 appearances and was widely considered as one of the best football players in the world during his heyday.
Nobody could have predicted the meteoric rise of the 5ft 2in winger after his abysmal debut which ended in a 6-0 defeat, however, the rest is history and he remains regarded as the club’s greatest ever player, along with the likes of Henrik Larsson.
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