Affirmation of Henrik Larsson’s status as a world-class talent became unnecessary long before his seven-year stay at Celtic ended. But two snapshots from his golden years as a footballer underscored the point.
The first occurred in Paris in 2006 after his introduction from the bench had swung the Champions League final between Barcelona and Arsenal in the Catalans’ favour. Assessing why his side had surrendered a one-goal lead, Thierry Henry looked beyond Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o and pointed towards the sublime contribution of the Swede.
The second occurred a year later in the rather less glamorous surroundings of Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium. Larsson’s final game of a loan spell from Helsingborgs to Manchester United had seen him drop back into midfield to earn his side a hard-fought draw in an FA Cup tie. When he returned to the visiting dressing room, players of the ilk of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand stood up and applauded.
‘They would say his name in awed tones,’ Sir Alex Ferguson revealed.
Some 21 years after witnessing his final game in a Celtic jersey, supporters of the Parkhead club still speak of Larsson in the same way.
Even in a team brimming with brilliance on the watch of Martin O’Neill, his talent was exceptional.
Henrik Larsson became an all-time Celtic great during his seven years at Parkhead
Larsson rounds Stefan Klos of Rangers to score one of his 242 goals for Celtic in 315 games
The Swede lifting the Premiership trophy became a familiar sight in Scottish football
His inclusion in the pantheon of Celtic’s all-time greats is as sure as the outcome witnessed whenever he saw the whites of a goalkeeper’s eyes.
As impressive as they are, the prosaic facts from those seven years in Glasgow’s East End only offer a rough outline of Larsson’s credentials.
He won four titles, two League Cups, two Scottish Cups and was the top scorer in the SPL in five seasons. There were 242 goals in 315 appearances. Some 53 of those arrived in season 2000-01 as Celtic won the Treble and he beat Hernan Crespo to Europe’s Golden Boot.
His life story and career were punctuated by adversity and toil. The son of a Cape Verdean father, he was subjected to racism growing up.
He went on trial to Benfica as a teenager but couldn’t sign due a limit on the number of foreigners. He returned home and made ends meet by loading boxes of fruit onto delivery vans.
Celtic, too, had its challenges for the Swede. He famously endured a nightmarish debut at Easter Road, gifting the ball to Chic Charnley as Hibs beat the visitors on the opening day of 1997-98.
A few weeks later, he came off second best in a training ground dust-up with Tosh McKinlay. There was a serious leg break in Lyon two years later.
Throughout it all, he exuded a steely edge and a redoubtable character, albeit journalists seeking headlines from his interviews invariably left the room disappointed and crestfallen after being subjected to one of his verbal nutmegs.
Larsson celebrates winning the league with the man who brought him to Celtic, Wim Jansen
He formed an incredible strike partnership at Parkhead with Englishman Chris Sutton
So big was Larsson that his switch from dreadlocks to shaven head made front page news
If there was no love affair with the written press, the reasons behind the one he had with Celtic and the club’s fanbase did not require much investigation.
Across four years, he had been unhappy, unloved and unwanted at Feyenoord. Wim Jansen had been the technical director in his time at Rotterdam and, for the princely sum of £650,000, the new Celtic manager changed everything in his world.
Larsson had numerous offers to leave Parkhead sooner than he did — Manchester United being one of them. But he eschewed them all, valuing what he had in Glasgow above an extra 15 grand a week.
Many players with a fraction of his ability would have gone for the money and left without so much as a backwards glance.
‘This is my club,’ he said. ‘I’ve played with a few teams, but I made myself as a player at Celtic.
‘I’ll be eternally grateful to Celtic because they took a chance on me when other clubs didn’t. It was here where I became recognised as a player.
‘I didn’t feel I needed to go somewhere else. I didn’t become a superstar at Barcelona. I became a superstar at Celtic.’
Larsson was in Glasgow long enough to witness the landscape of Scottish football evolve beyond all recognition.
No-one suspected Larsson would become a superstar after signing for just £650,000
Larsson does his famous tongue-out celebration after another goal for the Parkhead side
Neil Lennon admitted that Larsson’s presence alone gave the Celtic team confidence
Having famously helped prevent Rangers from winning 10-in-a-row in his first season, he was powerless to prevent the Ibrox club bouncing back to win five trophies out of six under the free-spending reign of Dick Advocaat.
But the appointment of O’Neill in 2000 changed everything. As well as Larsson, the Northern Irishman inherited players of the ilk of Lubomir Moravcik and Stiliyan Petrov before augmenting them with names including Chris Sutton, Alan Thompson, John Hartson and Neil Lennon.
By common consent, a 6-2 thrashing of Rangers in August 2000 was the day the balance of power shifted. Larsson’s outrageous chip over Stefan Klos was the defining moment.
‘Not only was he as brave as a lion, not only was he a terrific footballer and a goal-getter, but he was so graceful as well,’ said O’Neill.
In time, Sutton would put Larsson above Alan Shearer in terms of the best strikers he’d played beside. Zlatan Ibrahimovic claimed his compatriot could have featured for any club in Europe.
Even the most technically gifted Celtic player of that era marvelled at how magnificent the side’s No7 had become.
‘This sounds like a cliche,’ Moravcik said. ‘But the thing with Henrik was, he didn’t have one point or one trait that he excelled in, because he excelled in them all. There was no one trait he was good at in isolation.
‘He was fast, he had a brilliant touch, he could play with his left foot and his right foot and his head. His vision was fantastic. His passing was fantastic. His intelligence and understanding of the game were fantastic.
‘He could score free-kicks, penalties and, of course, goal after goal in open play. He was the complete striker.’
Lennon, the midfield rock in that all-conquering side fully, fully agreed.
Larsson went on to play a starring role for Barcelona as they won the Champions League
Larsson kisses the Champions League trophy after his vital contribution in beating Arsenal
Larsson’s command performance for Manchester United in an FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough earned him a standing ovation from Rooney and Ronaldo
‘The guy had everything,’ he said. ‘He was world class. Every time you sat in the dressing room, you would look at him and just know you had a chance in the game because he could score with either foot. He was unbelievable in the air.
‘He used to hang like Cristiano Ronaldo, bearing in mind he wasn’t a particularly tall guy and didn’t have rippling shoulder muscles.’
Larsson’s soaring popularity around that time was illustrated by the fact that his decision to chop off his dreadlocks — ‘inspired by Ruud Gullit and Bob Marley’ — made front page news in Scotland.
Those supporters of opposing teams hoping that, just like Samson, he would also lose his power, were to be sorely disappointed. He hit 35, 44 and 41 goals in his remaining three seasons.
Having scored the late winner away to Boavista in the semi-final of the 2003 UEFA Cup, he claimed a double in the final against Porto, only to see the side come up just short in extra-time.
‘We were an excellent team,’ he later recalled. ‘We beat Blackburn and Liverpool on the way.
‘I still haven’t gotten over that one. I wish I had done more, because I know how much it meant to the Celtic fans.’
The truth was that he could not have given more — not only on that balmy May night in Andalusia but throughout his storied time at the club.
As sorrowful as the parting was a year later, Celtic supporters could take solace from the fact that Larsson’s brilliance dazzled them for quite as long as it did. They won’t see his like again.
‘How can I regret that?’ he recently said. ‘The career I had at Celtic, the amount of goals and assists and the relationship with the fans and the club, I can’t regret that.
‘That’s something I’m going to cherish as long as I live.’
