Odsonne Edouard has sent Moussa Dembele a birthday message and reminded us of some glorious Celtic days.
Dembele turned 27 yesterday, in news that may make you feel a little older. The Frenchman was just 19 when he joined Celtic in the summer of 2016 — right at the start of the first Brendan Rodgers era.
He spent two full seasons in Glasgow, with compatriot Edouard joining him in season two. Edouard went on to play for the club for four full campaigns, arguably bettering Dembele’s impact in the hoops.
Between them, they scored 139 goals (Celtic Fitba Stats) and earned the club around £35m in transfer fees.
Edouard posted the birthday message on his Instagram stories on Wednesday, writing: “Happy birthday the nine, @mdembele_10”.
He included an image of the pair celebrating after Edouard struck a goal against Hearts in a 3-1 Celtic Park win in January 2018.
Dembele acknowledged the post by sharing it to his own story. It’s lovely that the pair are still in some sort of contact years after they played together at Celtic.
Celtic supporters didn’t get to see Dembele and Edouard in the same team for long, but those were glorious days.
We were winning trophies galore, and playing terrific football under Rodgers, while watching two brilliant strikers perform at the top of their game.
Of course, bar one pandemic-hit season, the good times haven’t really been halted since.
We now look ahead to this season and ponder what Rodgers’ striking options will look like. Kyogo Furuhashi seems extremely likely to be our main man again, but it will be interesting to see what impact Hyeongyu Oh can make.
With both likely to head to the Asian Cup in early 2024 many may feel that we could do with a third striker as well. Time will tell whether Rodgers and the recruitment team see it that way too.
In other news, the latest on a potential Kieran Tierney and Celtic reunion
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
