Joy in my heart keep me praising – Five fabulous Celtic signings

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·9 May 2025

Joy in my heart keep me praising – Five fabulous Celtic signings

As Scotland’s finest and most successful football club, Celtic has clearly got a lot of things right…

One area where the club has generally succeeded in is with player recruitment, with a selection of quality acquisitions joining the club over the years. From unknown quantities who develop into key players to youngsters who realise their potential at Celtic Park, all showing that it’s a grand old team to play for.

Celtic supporters have witnessed an array of league title wins, League Cup triumphs, Scottish Cup victories, doubles, trebles (lots of trebles in recent times) and even some notable progress in competitions like the UEFA Champions League. Some alder supporters will also recall going to Lisbon in 1967 to watch Celtic become Champions of Europe after beating Inter Milan to win the European Cup.

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Celtic captain Billy McNeill holds aloft the European Cup after Celtic’s 2-1 victory over Inter Milan in the 1967 European Cup Final in Lisbon. Photo Imago.

This is not only down to the respected managers like Jock Stein and Brendan Rodgers that have also clearly played their part, but also due to some shrewd recruitment that has resulted in the club becoming a safe pick when it comes to football betting and a popular choice for fans who want to watch an entertaining team on television.

Over the years, Celtic have certainly snapped up some talented players. Of course, like any team, there have also been some undoubted duds, but the club has got it right on so many occasions. As a result, we’ve seen heroes being born and some players going on to be sold for huge sums of money after arriving at the club for a small fee. While Celtic fans would obviously prefer it if their star players stayed a bit longer, it’s the nature of the beast, and sometimes the lure of playing football in England, for example, is too strong.

Celtic celebrations

Despite the fierce competition out there, though, Celtic have still managed to achieve a great deal of success and acquire the services of some highly talented players in more recent times. So, with that in mind, below we look at five top Celtic signings who will never be forgotten for their time in the Hoops.

Henrik Larsson – The King of Kings

27 August 2000: Henrik Larsson celebrates during the Scottish Premier League match against Rangers at Celtic Park. Celtic won the game 6 – 2. Photo: Stu Forster /Allsport

There’s only one place to start, right? Step forward, Henrik Larsson. The legendary Swedish striker is widely regarded as the club’s best-ever signing. The fact that he developed into such a hero after arriving for such a small fee of £650k from Feyenoord makes him even more special. Larsson didn’t just know where the goal was either, but he was a consummate professional who clearly loved playing for the Scottish giants. In his seven years at the club, Larsson scored a staggering 282 goals, and while it was sad to see him leave for pastures new at Barcelona, Celtic supporters were all delighted to see their hero win the Champions League with the Spanish giants.

PFA Scotland POTY Daizen Maeda. Photo PFA Scotland.

Such was his impact at the club; any strikers who join Celtic today are generally always compared to the Henrik Larsson, and the current Celtic striker Daizen Maeda is now being compared to the King of Kings. High praise indeed for Scotland’s Player of the Year. Henrik is a true giant of the Scottish game, Larsson will be talked about a century from now by future generations of Celtic supporters having had the stories passed down through the generations. It’s what Celtic supporters do,

Lubo Moravcik – A Gift from God

Lubo Moravcik signed for Celtic on 27 October 1998. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Lubo Moravcik arrived at Celtic Park as somewhat of an unknown quantity, but he left the club as a true legend. The creative midfielder was signed from MSV Duisburg and went on to impact a number of games in the Scottish top flight. The Slovakian midfielder was in the latter stages of his career at the age of 33, but that didn’t stop him from standing out on a regular basis for Celtic. Moravcik was a joy to watch, he played his part in five memorable trophy wins for the club, and he even managed to see off Rangers a few times with some notable strikes. Overall, Lubo Moravcik’s impact was special, particularly given that few Celtic supporters were aware of him before he arrived at the club, signed by his former coach Dr Jo Venglos.

Moussa Dembele – Scorer of the Perfect Treble against theRangers

Moussa Dembele of Celtic takes away the match ball having scored 3 of the 5 goals during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and theRangers at Celtic Park on September 10, 2016. (Photo by Steve Welsh/Getty Images)

The fact that Celtic managed to sign Moussa Dembele for a £500,000 development fee will surely be regarded as one of the biggest bargains in Scottish football history. The former Fulham striker was lethal for the club, going on to score hatfuls of goals in the biggest of games. Highlights include his perfect hat-trick on his Glasgow Derby debut, while his double against Manchester City in the Champions League was also memorable. Overall, the 2016/2017 ‘Goal of the Season’ winner was a fantastic signing for the club, scoring 51 goals in just under 100 appearances. While it would have been nice to see him stay at Celtic for a bit longer, the £19.7 million transfer fee the club received from Lyon was hard to turn down. Moussa remains a Celtic supporter and is very popular with the Celtic supporters on social media.

Odsonne Edouard – French Eddie gave us our Beautiful Sunday

Odsonne Edouard celebrates scoring to give Celtic a 3-2 lead. theRangers v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Ibrox – Beautiful Sunday 11 March 2018. Photo by Stuart Wallace Shutterstock

Although Odsonne Edouard stood out for the club while on loan from Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, purchasing him on a permanent basis for £9 million in 2018 was when he went up another level. Clearly happy to join the club and be settled in a home he grew to love, Edouard didn’t come cheap, but he backed up his price tag. While his career has stagnated a bit in more recent times, Celtic undoubtedly saw the very best of Odsonne Edouard. He made the 2018 Golden Boy award shortlist, he scored crucial goals for the team, such as in the 2-1 Scottish Cup final win against Hearts in 2019, and he was crucial to the side in what was a great few years for fans of the Hoops. For many Celtic fans, Odsonne Edouard comes as one of the top strikers in the modern era when assessing the best goal-getters who’ve played for the club. It’s sad to see Odsonne’s career falter at Crystal Palace and there has been one or two suggestions that he could make sensational return to Paradise this summer but that seems unlikely. His finest moment for Celtic was that winning goal at Ibrox on Beautiful Sunday in March 2018. That how we’ll always remember him.

Virgil van Dijk – Strolled it, an absolute Rolls Royce of a footballer

James Forrest is congratulated by teammate Virgil van Dijk after scoring the opening goal during the UEFA Champions League Group match between Celtic and Ajax at Celtic Park Stadium on October 22, 2013 (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Ending with a central defender many fans regard as the best in the world right now, Virgil van Dijk’s potential was obvious when turning out for Celtic. The Dutch unit was plucked from relative obscurity at Groningen and hasn’t looked back since. Signed for just £2.75 million before being eventually (under) sold to Southampton for a fee of £13 million, Van Dijk’s potential was scary at the time. The fact that he’s gone on to win it all in England with Liverpool was hardly surprising for most of the Celtic faithful. Week in, week out, the imposing defender oozed class. he rarely lost a battle, and he was simply too good for the level he was playing at. As one of the club’s greatest-ever defenders, Virgil van Dijk will always be welcome at Celtic Park and like all of the above, always talks fondly about his time wearing the Hoops.

And we could easily add another five names to this list. Who else would you pick?