HIS brother wrote his name into folklore with a key role in the club’s historic Scottish Cup triumph - now Ewan Henderson is determined to ‘deliver’ for Hibernian.
The Celtic midfielder has joined the Easter Road club on loan for the rest of the season and has agreed a further three-year deal to make the switch permanent with the capital outfit.
The move sees the 21-year-old follow in the footsteps of older sibling Liam, whose corners set up Anthony Stokes and, most famously, David Gray for late goals in Hibs’ 3-2 cup victory over Rangers in 2016.
Gray’s winner will be forever linked with Sky TV commentator Ian Crocker’s ‘Henderson to deliver’ set-up and Hibs’ new signing admits watching on as his brother played a massive part in the club's moment of glory will be forever etched in his memory.
He said: “I’m forever grateful to Celtic for what they have done for me. They brought me through their academy and I played a few times [12] for the first-team.
“I’ll always be grateful to Celtic for the opportunity they gave me.
“But I think Hibs is just the perfect place for me. It’s a massive club and the fanbase is unbelievable.
“Obviously, I was there in 2016 when Hibs won the Scottish Cup, so I know how much it means to the fans.
“The cup final was an amazing day for the family. My grandad is a Hibs supporter, he was brought up in Edinburgh, and my dad [former footballer Nicky] as well, he supported Hibs when he was younger.
“So, for all the Hibs fans and our family, and for everyone who knows Liam, it was an unbelievable day I’ll never forget.
“I spoke to the family [about the move] and I’ve been FaceTiming Liam every day.
“They’ve just said the best place to be is Hibs. Liam knows the club well and said it’s a top club with a big fanbase and the perfect place for me to be.”
Hibs’ interest in Henderson emerged after he scored in Celtic’s 3-2 victory over Real Betis last month in the Europa League.
And he admits, as soon as he heard his former Celtic academy coach, Shaun Maloney, had taken over as successor to Jack Ross at Easter Road, his mind was made up.
He added: “Shaun, the manager, was my coach in the reserves [at Celtic] so obviously I’ve known a lot about him.
“But it kind of came about after I came on against Real Betis and scored for Celtic. After that, my agent phoned me that night and said Hibs were interested.
“Obviously, the manager wasn't announced then, so I said I would need to see who the manager is.
“As soon as I saw it was Shaun Maloney I thought, ‘one million per cent, let’s get this done!’
“Shaun is a big influence in why I’ve chosen Hibs. When I worked with him at Celtic, he was a top manager and he made me a better player.
“He was unbelievable and a big influence on my career from an early age, at the age of 18. The way he sees football made me look at football in a completely different way to what I did before.
“He was a big reason that I made the step up to the Celtic first-team.”
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