Some Celtic fans have been discussing a tweet about Henrik Larsson that went viral on Twitter recently.
Celtic fan ‘Boyle_67’ recently posted about Larsson on Twitter. He called the former Celtic player the ‘greatest talent to ever grace Scottish football’.
On seeing the post, many Celtic fans flocked to it. They had a variety of opinions about it. Some agreed with the sentiment, while others said that he wasn’t the greatest ever to play in Scotland.
Best player I have seen in Scotland. But Dalglish was probably the best player in the world around the start of the 80s.
— Vincent Henry (@VincentHenry) April 27, 2020
Irreplaceable ??
— Brendan Behans Pen (@BehansPen) April 26, 2020
Can Larsson be regarded as the greatest in Scottish football history?
Yes!
Not for me
100 percent got to agree here. Regardless what age u r. Henriks the best ever player to grace the shirt. Name another player at his age that left for Barca and Man Utd knocked back sir Alex twice and turned the game to win a champs league medal.
— Gregor McVicar (@gregormcvicar67) April 27, 2020
Disagree
Outstanding player, truly world class…..as were most of the lion’s, and I’d argue that two (at least) where as good if not better….Jinky and Cesar— Tony McGinley (@McGinleyTony) April 27, 2020
No if you’re older than 30
— Douglas Hepburn (@DouglasHepburn) April 26, 2020
I’m 59 and I say Henrik
— paulo (@PaulCawley3) April 26, 2020
Kenny D – Jinky- Bobby Lennox- Bobby Murdoch – Danny McGrain and Henrik were all World class players.
— timtim (@timtimbelgium) April 27, 2020
Larsson was at Celtic for seven years. As per the club’s official website, he scored 242 goals in 315 appearances. As a Hoops player, the Swede was the Premiership’s highest scorer as many as five times and he was the UEFA Cup’s highest scorer during Celtic’s run to the final in 2002/03 (via Transfermarkt).
What do we think?
While all those numbers show that Larsson does have a special place in Celtic history, it may not be fair to compare him to other club legends because they were in different eras.
Winning the European Cup in 1967 was a historic achievement for Celtic and the team of that era had names like Bobby Lennox, Jimmy Johnstone and Billy McNeill. Because of that, it could be argued that they should be high up the list of the greatest players in Scotland because of the size of their impressive feat.
In that sense, comparing players from different eras would be unfair – but Celtic fans can still remember Larsson’s contributions in an individual context and appreciate his obvious talents, all the same.