Most Celtic fans will see Henrik Larsson as the club’s greatest ever player.
The deadly Swedish striker signed for the Hoops in 1997 and went on to establish himself as a legendary Celtic figure over the next seven years.
He donned the iconic No.7 jersey and went on to score an incredible 242 goals for Celtic across all competitions – he’s behind only Jimmy McGrory and Bobby Lennox on the club’s all-time scoring charts.
Larsson – dubbed ‘The King’ by Celtic supporters – soon went on to play for Barcelona and Manchester United as the rest of the world finally bore witness to his talents.
Former Celtic defender Alan Stubbs played alongside Larsson for four years between 1997 and 2001 before the Liverpudlian moved to Everton.
Up until his move to Everton, Stubbs would have had Larsson right at the top in terms of the best he’d ever played with – and rightly so.
Wayne Rooney ranked above Celtic legend Henrik Larsson
But when he joined Everton, it would only be a year later before he played with a young and very talented Wayne Rooney at Goodison Park.
And for Stubbs, he has actually ranked Rooney as a better player than Larsson, which to some Celtic fans will sound rather baffling.
Stubbs appeared on The Warm-Up podcast recently with two of his former sides Celtic and Hibs battling in the Scottish Cup on Sunday.
And he was asked by Steven Naismith to rank his top two players he’d played with in his career. Stubbs replied: “I’ve got Wayne at the top and really literally only just below him is Larsson.
“Larsson was incredible. As a centre-back, he made my passes look so easy. He would just go there (backwards) and then peel away. Luckily enough, his runs were that good that I’d find him.
“But I was glad that in the end – obviously he was at Celtic for a long time – that he went to (Manchester) United and Barcelona and people then, not just in Scotland but people outside, appreciated how good he was.”
Stubbs was also a huge fan of Lubo Moravcik
Another incredible foreign talent for Celtic around that period was the Slovakian midfield master Lubo Moravcik, who joined in 1998 as a 33-year-old from MSV Duisburg.
He spent four years at Parkhead and wowed the Celtic fans with his incredible technical ability and free-kick prowess.
Henrik Larsson actually once said of Moravcik: “For me, he is one of the best players I ever played with. Still to this day I don’t know if he was right-footed or left-footed.”
Stubbs shared a dressing room with Lubo and picked him out as one of the greatest he’d ever played alongside.
He said of Moravcik: “Unbelievable. Best natural two-footed (player), unbelievable. Honest to God, he was a wizard and a technician. The things he did…
“He was one of them that could just do anything. You know one of them, like really annoying players? Left foot, right foot, outside of the foot, either foot and obviously remember the one when he controlled it with his backside?
“We didn’t know nothing (about him). I think he was Jozef Venglos’ signing at the time, so we obviously didn’t know. But he’s come in and just wow. Honestly, he was a brilliant player.”
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