Stevie Chalmers – The Man Who Scored Celtic's Most Important Goal

CELTIC Football Club is devastated at the death of Stevie Chalmers, one of Celtic’s greatest ever goalscorers and the man who scored the most important goal in the club’s history.

The Lisbon Lion passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at the age of 83, and the Celtic Family is once again mourning the loss of a club legend, following the death of Stevie’s team-mate and friend, Billy McNeill.

First and foremost, all our thoughts and prayers are with Stevie’s wife, Sadie, their children, Stephen, Carol, Paul, Ann, Martin, Clare, and their grandchildren at this extremely sad time.

Thoughts, too, go to Stevie’s football family and, in particular, his fellow Lisbon Lions as they mourn the loss of another of their own.

Stevie Chalmers scored 231 goals in 406 appearances for Celtic between 1959 and ’71, making him the club’s fourth top goalscorer of all-time. Only Henrik Larsson (242), Bobby Lennox (277) and Jimmy McGrory (468) have scored more goals for Celtic.

Yet that trio of legends can’t claim to have scored the single most important goal in Celtic’s history. Stevie Chalmers can.

It came on Thursday, May 25, 1967 at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon. With just five minutes of the European Cup final remaining, Chalmers knocked home a Bobby Murdoch shot into the Inter Milan net to give Celtic a 2-1 victory, ensuring they became the first club from Northern Europe to lift the prestigious trophy.

It was the crowning glory for the club, the manager, the group of players he assembled and, of course, for the supporters who, just two years before, had seen their side finish eighth in the league. It also ensured that Stevie Chalmers’ name will forever be remembered with deep gratitude and fondness by Celtic fans.