A Big Name For The Big Games

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink certainly had the big-name credentials for playing at the top with Celtic.

IT was on August 24, 2006 that Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink signed for Celtic, and a couple of days later he scored the winner on his debut when he came off the bench to face Hibernian.

With the acclaim of the Celtic crowd still ringing in his ears, he gave his first ever interview with the Celtic View and starred in that week’s issue.

By dint of his family history, he did, in fact sign as the biggest name in Celtic’s history thanks to the number of letters in his surname.

The Dutchman also possessed that big-game awareness and, as well as scoring on his debut, there was a list of other memorable goals.

His strike against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Champions League marked his first European goal for the Hoops, his first derby goal gave Celtic a 2-1 win over Rangers in injury time, while who could forget his header against Dundee United at Tannadice that sent the SPFL trophy-carrying helicopter to Celtic’s game rather than Rangers’ match at Pittodrie?

The striker won two league titles as well as helping the Hoops to Scottish Cup and League Cup victories before leaving for Hull City in 2009 after scoring 44 goals in 108 Celtic games.

Here, we revisit that first ever interview from the August 30, 2006 issue of the Celtic View.

AS FAR as introductions go, it would be fair to say that Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink enjoyed the perfect one on Saturday afternoon at Celtic Park.

A match-winning strike on his home debut, just 14 minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute, wasn’t a bad way to take his bow in front of the Celtic supporters.

And, after a whirlwind week, which included two journeys between Scotland and The Netherlands and a series of protracted transfer negotiations, his goal and performance were the perfect rewards.