George Connelly, the Celtic legend who shocked the football world when he quit the game at the age of just 26 in 1975, confessed to a feeling of nervous anticipation yesterday as he prepares to turn the clock back 32 years.
Connelly will make an emotional return to the scene of his greatest triumphs when he walks out in front of 60,000 Celtic fans at Parkhead tonight. The 58-year-old former midfielder will take a bow when he makes the half-time prize draw in the Champions League tie with Milan.
Connelly revealed that he paid his first visit to Parkhead for more than a quarter of a century for Celtic's qualifying tie against Spartak Moscow in August.
Connelly, nicknamed the Scottish Beckenbauer', said: "I am very excited to be going back for the first time as a guest of the club and I am looking forward to the occasion immensely.
"But I have been away for a long time so I suppose I will get a huge reception from the fans and I am a little nervous at the prospect. I was at the Spartak game with my son, David, but this is my first official visit."
Connelly, who played 250 times for Celtic but quit to drive a lorry at the height of his career after struggling to handle the demands of stardom due to a natural shyness, reflected: "It seemed the right thing to do at the time, but I have missed the game in a way and I suppose, with hindsight, I am not so sure I made the correct decision."
Connelly, who now works as a taxi driver, added: "I keep fit power walking for up to three hours at a time and I am in good shape."
Connelly first came to the public's notice as a teenager when he was persuaded by Jock Stein to entertain the fans at half-time at European Cup ties by performing ball juggling skills. Such was his astonishing control that he was capable of performing several hundred keepie-uppies' at a time.
Stein tried desperately to keep Connelly in the game, in the belief that he could become one of the true greats, but eventually conceded defeat after several walk-outs' by the troubled player. Connelly, who won only two Scotland caps, also walked out on the national team in 1973 when he suddenly disappeared from Glasgow Airport en route to Switzerland. Connelly's autobiography, Celtic's Lost Legend: The George Connelly Story, is scheduled for publication later this month.
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