Barry Bannan is a Scottish international who has never played in Scotland.
Joining Aston Villa at age 14, the boyhood Celtic fan has now made over 600 appearances in England, earning 27 caps for his country.
A vocal supporter of his boyhood club who grew up idolising Stiliyan Petrov, he followed in his hero’s footsteps at Villa Park, but his greatest legacy will be at Sheffield Wednesday.
He moved to Hillsborough in 2015 and went on to make 477 appearances for the Owls. He left Wednesday for Millwall last month amid financial trouble at the club he captained.
In a revealing interview, he has reflected on the reason why he left behind the opportunity to play for the club he supported – candidly discussing the sensitive topic of substance and alcohol abuse.
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Barry Bannan on Celtic ‘regret’
Today, Bannan is one of the most respected figures in the Championship for his technical ability, consistency and loyalty to Sheffield Wednesday.
Aged 36, he hasn’t given up on making Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad at the World Cup.
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Speaking to Total Media, he said that his decision to move to Birmingham was primarily motivated by a desire not to replicate the mistakes of his father.
He said: “Obviously, my dream was to play for Celtic, growing up as a kid.
“That was maybe my only regret in life is that I never (played for Celtic). When I signed for Aston Villa, I was training for Celtic.
“I could’ve went to Celtic, but – long story short – where I was brought up in Scotland was a really rough area. We lived in a council flat, I shared a room with my brother.
“And that area was full of drugs, drink, addiction… my Dad was a really good footballer, but he liked the drink too much.
“He was at Celtic, they came to pick him up on a Saturday. He must’ve been 16, 17 maybe. They knocked on the door, and my Gran, who is passed away now, opened up the door and the guy had Celtic stuff on.
“He said ‘we’re here for James to go and play today, he’s got a game for us’. She was like, ‘he’s in the pub’. He was 16 at the time!
“So the guy was like, ‘oh well, we’ll come back for him next week.’ They never came back for him.
“So he seen how he fell away, and he knew it was down to that area. He can obviously say no; he didn’t know how I was going to grow up. I might’ve went that way, he might’ve took me out of it.
“So they didn’t want me in that area, they didn’t want me making the same mistakes that he made.
“So that’s a little bit of a regret, but then again, I look back and say ‘would I have been the same as him?'”
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Celtic’s current academy prospects
Colby Donovan is the most recent academy graduate into the first team. He has made nine league appearances this season.
Kyle Ure and Jude Bonnar are on loan at Scott Brown’s Ayr United, with Brown recently praising them both.
Mark Wilson’s Partick Thistle have Josh Clarke and Ben McPherson on loan – they also had Sean McArdle until he was recalled by the Hoops in January.
Emmanuel Obidiwe, Finlay Hale and Samuel Isiguzo are among the standout talents currently in the B team
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