If you are a Celtic fan who lived through the Martin O’Neill era — you’ll no doubt be fully aware of the famous Rivaldo to Celtic story.
The Brazilian legend who played for AC Milan was coming to the end of his career — but he wasn’t quite done yet.
The World Cup winner was on the look out for a new club in 2004 and the strong goes, Martin O’Neill tried to bring him in. However, instead of offering the midfielder terms — Celtic offered him a trial!
16 years on, the Brazilian recalls that period of his career and confirmed the story was true.
Celtic had just seen Henrik Larsson leave the club after seven years with the legendary Swede heading to Barcelona. Bringing in Rivaldo — even at the twilight of his career — would have been a marquee signing at the time.
But it wasn’t to be, Rivaldo and his reps found out the Glasgow club only wanted to offer him a trial before doing a deal — the player wasn’t up for that.
“Yep, I remember that Celtic were interested in me back then.” Rivaldo told SunSport.
“I do not remember if we ever met to discuss it. I think Celtic sent an offer, like many other clubs at that time.
“I had meetings at Manchester, London and Liverpool. Sir Alex Ferguson was interested as well as Tottenham, we even had a meeting with Daniel Levy and Liverpool, Gerard Houlier called me.
“We also had a meeting in Manchester with Bolton’s president and their manager Sam Allardyce.
“I suppose there was no direct contact with Celtic. There was an offer, but it didn’t go as far as the ones from Man United, Liverpool or Bolton.”
“Yep, some British clubs offered me a trial, Celtic and Bolton spring to mind.
“At the time it surprised me because I was in good form when I left AC Milan, so I did not understand their offer and the objective of it.”
