Derek Riordan has claimed he could have scored as many goals for Celtic as legend Henrik Larsson.
The striker recently sat down with ex-Celtic trainee Simon Ferry for an interview on Open Goal. The Celtic flop stated he was overlooked during his time at Parkhead.
When prompted by Ferry on how he would have fared at Celtic had he been given a full season in the first team, Riordan boasted he would ‘easily’ score 30 goals as season.
Gordon Strachan proclaimed him “the best finisher at the club” but hardly gave Riordan a chance to prove him right.
The ex-Hibee stated: “I’d say Larsson got six or seven chances a game, and he would probably take at least two. I’m confident enough to take two chances in a game.”
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Larsson scored 242 goals for Celtic in 313 appearances, cementing his status as one of Celtic’s greatest ever players.
Riordan in comparison, only managed eight competitive goals for Celtic in 32 matches. Some will agree that he was overlooked by Strachan in his time at Celtic.
However, it’s less likely that any Celtic fan would believe he was capable of emulating Larsson’s contribution.
Derek Riordan never really got going at Celtic, before returning to his boyhood club Hibs in 2008. He was a key player for Hibs in both of his spells at the club.
Outside of Hibernian though, he rarely threatened to make any sort of impression. He took in England and China, as well as a host of lower league clubs in Scotland.
Nowadays, Riordan is playing amateur football with his friends every Saturday.
Larsson, in comparison, left Celtic to win the Champions League with Barcelona. In Spain he won two La Liga titles then a Premier League title with Manchester United in England.
Now he pops up occasionally to play in charity matches and testimonials at Celtic. He could probably score more goals than Derek Riordan at Celtic even today.