Who’s the Greatest? An Unscientific Look at the Best Celtic Strikers of All Time

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·11 March 2022

Who’s the Greatest? An Unscientific Look at the Best Celtic Strikers of All Time

Who’s the Greatest? An Unscientific Look at the Best Celtic Goalscorers of All Time…

Avis, the car rental company famously coined the we try harder slogan, making a selling point of being ranked second in their field. When it comes to Scottish football, theRangers might be thinking about adopting the Avis approach after losing a six point lead in the title race to find themselves trailing Celtic by three points as the Scottish Premiership enters the business end of the season. Abba had a song that perfectly describes football in Glasgow – The Winners Takes it All.

Looking back at Celtic’s impressive and unbroken history the Hoops have had some legendary names who have come and gone over the years, and while the importance of a solid defence and agile midfielders cannot be overstated, it all counts for nothing without balls in the back of the net. Here, we take an unscientific look at four of the top strikers ever to wear the shirt. They are in chronological order, narrowing it down to four was challenge enough – who would you rank the greatest of them all?

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Jimmy McGrory

Nothing lasts forever, and if most of today’s Celtic fans were asked to name their all-time greatest XI, chances are the club’s top goalscorer would be left out. However, if people had been playing fantasy football in the 1920s, Jimmy McGrory’s name would have been the first on the team sheet. This year marks 100 years since he signed his first contract with Celtic, on £5 per week. He remained with the club for his entire career, and his 469 goals have yet to be beaten. Today, he’s remembered by older fans as the club’s second longest-standing manager, a position he held from 1945 to 1965.

Bobby Lennox

Celtic fans will never forget the amazing the Lisbon Lions, Celtic’s European Cup winning team from 1967. In a remarkable career that spanned 20 years, Bobby Lennox was an essential component of Jock Stein’s legendary, historic and wonderful team. He was also part of Celtic’s League winning team of 1978/79, as well as playing his part in their Scottish Cup victory in 1980. Described by no less an authority than Bobby Charlton as one of the best strikers he had ever seen, Lennox is second only to Jimmy McGrory in Celtic’s goal scoring stakes.

Kenny Dalglish

Scotland’s most capped international established his reputation as not just the best striker in his country but one of the best in the world in the 1970s. As a child, he was a Rangers fan, and the story goes that when Sean Fallon knocked at the door to discuss a youth contract, he rushed upstairs to tear all of his Rangers posters from his bedroom wall. He was with Celtic throughout the 70s, and although fans maybe never fully forgave him for signing for Liverpool, it’s doubtful the club would have scooped those four Scottish Cups and four League titles without him as Celtic became the first team in Scotland to win nine-in-a-row.

Henrik Larsson

The talismanic Larsson broke all the scoring records in the book during seven explosive years with the club. In his debut season, he helped Celtic secure their first League title in a decade, and in his second last, he scored twice in that memorable but ultimately heart-breaking UEFA Cup Final against Porto in Seville. The intervening years were simply a blur, but one thing is for sure. 20 years on, he’s widely regarded as the best overseas player ever to play in Scotland and like the three Celts previously mentioned The King of Kings – as the Celtic fans named him – was a world class footballer happy to spend his best years in the game wearing the green and white Hoops of Celtic.