FORMER CELTIC manager and midfielder Neil Lennon believes that if Henrik Larsson were playing in today‘s game, he would be worth over £100 million.
The former teammate of Larsson‘s experienced first–hand some of the 242 goals that the Swede scored while at Parkhead.
After seven seasons in the green and white hoops, Larsson went on to play for two of Europe’s biggest clubs in Manchester United and Barcelona. He was pivotal in the Champions League final win in 2006, coming off the bench to totally change the game.
Lennon compared the Celtic legend to Nunez of Liverpool, admitting the players were similar, but Larsson was more prolific. Lennon reasoned that if the Liverpool striker cost £75 million, Henrik would “comfortably” go for £100 million.
He told Boylesports:
“Henrik from his peak, so the ages of 28 onwards, you would be talking about £100million plus comfortably. I really like Darwin Nunez at Liverpool, he wouldn’t be as prolific as Henrik, and he was £75m.
“So you would easily need to talk more for Henrik because of his ratio of goals to games. Henrik left Celtic on a free to join Barcelona and he more or less scored in every game when he played for them. He came on in the Champions League final against Arsenal in 2006 and changed the game. Then he went to Man United – at the age of about 35, 36 – and he wins the Premier League.
“The guy had everything, he was world class and I was fortunate enough to play with him for four or five years. 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 and 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.”
It’s fair to say that no one has quite reached the heights of Larsson at Celtic, but one player that’s going to come close is Kyogo.
The most derby goals scored by a single player in a season is Henrik Larsson, with six. With two games to go of the season, Kyogo already has five goals against them, despite coming off injured very early on in the 4-0 game at the start of the season. Could the man from Japan break the king of kings’ record?
