Celtic nicknamed "Bhoys", is a club in Scotland who normally finishes in top two places in Scottish premier League. Founded in 1888, they boast of a rich tradition and players who become world beaters, most of them after leaving Celtic :-). They are still considered to be the best club in Scotland, though Rangers are soon catching up or by the time you read this, they are at par with Celtic, I don't want to get into this controversy, you will soon see why.
Celtic and Rangers are from the same city Glasgow and are arch rivals both on and off the field. It's something like India Vs Pakistan or Australia Vs England, may be little more than that. Since they are both from the same city, the action heats up whenever they meet in the championship, making Glasgow a not-so-safe place. Last weekend, the moment was there again, Rangers Vs Celtic at Ibrox (Rangers home ground). Incidentally Celtic also has their home ground Celtic Park in Glasgow, just few miles away from Ibrox. People who support Celtic restrained themselves from visiting Ibrox except from really brave souls. The match ended in Rangers winning the match 3-1 (Now you know, why I am not smiling in the photo)
After the match, we collected our strength to go around the city for shopping. Normally the roads which remains occupied by people with football colors, remained pale. All we could see was Rangers color (Blue), worse when we saw some Celtic fans with bruises. We sort of felt that the rivalry has been taken to a new level and first time I felt guilty of being passionate about football. More because I am a Celtic fan.
Recently Celtic was in new because they signed first ever Asian star Shunsuke Nakamura in SPL (Scottish Premier League). With players like J S Park, Nakamura and Al Karimi, making their mark in Europe, the day is not far off when we would see some Indian players make it to the top league.
One interesting fact is that it was an Indian from Calcutta who first made it to Celtic and was in news not because of his skills but he played bare footed. We Indians, know how to be in limelight, what say Suman?
Reach me at hifromsriram at GMAIL.com
