Who is Graeme Mathie, the Sporting Director that was pictured at Celtic Park yesterday? | OneFootball

Celtic recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over St Johnstone yesterday thanks to goals from Giorgos Giakoumakis and Josip Juranovic. The win carries on an impressive run of results for Ange Postecoglou’s side but another talking point in the aftermath of the result was that Graeme Mathie was spotted in the Directors Box.

Mathie recently left his role as Sporting Director at Hibs and has been touring the UK continuing to grow his professional network. However, the appearance at Celtic Park has strengthened the possibility of a move to Glasgow’s East End as the club still envisages a modernisation of the footballing department.

Mathie enjoyed a career as a professional football before transitioning into coaching with Celtic. The ex-Motherwell player started as a Youth Academy coach in 2005 before progressing into a Community Development Manager role. Each of these roles then prepared Mathie for the step-up to become a scouting analyst at the club from 2008 to 2012. Following his departure from Celtic, Mathie went to the SFA where he worked as a Club Development Manager. This two-year role then lead to Mathie making the switch to Easter Road as Head of Player Identification and Recruitment, where he spent nearly six years finding talents like John McGinn and Kevin Nisbet.

Photo: Alan Rennie

In Jan 2020, Mathie was given the role of Sporting Director but since Ron Gordon confirmed that the Edinburgh club would need to make cost-cutting measures, Mathie’s role was axed and he was replaced by Gordon’s son. Meanwhile, Gordon Strachan is currently undergoing a three-month review of the Celtic footballing operations (away from the First Team) for the Board as they look to bring in a new scouting operation to the club with Gary Penrice and Nicky Hammond departing earlier this year.

Celtic face Hibs at Easter Rd on Wednesday and it will be interesting to see whether Celtic are considering Mathie for a role at Celtic.