The former Celtic striker who blew Jose Mourinho away in his first game in charge of Chelsea

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As Celtic are set to embark on yet another tour of the USA, it seems that the trip to the States has triggered some memories for one former Hoops striker.

We discussed yesterday what happened the last time Celtic went to the US in 2010 as the team suffered defeats to Philadelphia Union and Manchester, beat the Seattle Sounders and then eventually overcame Sporting Lisbon 6-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Georgios Samaras was the star that time around after bagging three goals but it was six years before that when former Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho was left in awe of one former Celtic striker.

Mourinho impressed by Craig Beattie

Craig Beattie joined Celtic in 2003 after being released from Rangers by Dick Advocaat. He made his first team debut in a Champions League qualifier against FB Kaunus and also starred in the famous 1-0 win over Barcelona in the UEFA Cup in 2004. [UEFA]

But it was the summer of that year when he caught Jose Mourinho‘s eye when he scored twice in the 4-2 defeat to Chelsea in the 2004 Summer Tour and Beattie remembers it fondly.

Beattie said [Daily Record], “Yeah, it all went downhill after that!

“It was Jose Mourinho’s first game in charge of Chelsea, we lost 4-2 and I scored the two goals.

“Most of Mourinho’s press conference he spoke about me because I’d scored twice.

“They had Arjen Robben making his debut but Mourinho was speaking about me.

“I can’t remember what he said, honestly, he wasn’t a big deal back then! He wasn’t the Special One, maybe he knew he was but the rest of us didn’t.

“Robert Huth was marking me for Chelsea. He was an absolute unit. Strong as a bear, 6ft 4in and probably the one I remember more than anyone from that tour.

“Listen, it’s still pre-season and the goal against Liverpool was a penalty and we were 5-1 down. But then we beat Man United 2-1 and I came on for the last half hour and managed to get the winner.”

Celtic got taught a couple of serious lessons on that tour. After the Chelsea defeat, they went on to lose 5-1 to Liverpool and 1-0 to Roma but did beat Manchester United 2-1 where Beattie scored the winning penalty in the 71st minute.

Beattie made 59 appearances for Celtic scoring 15 goals over a four-year period at the club. Considering much of his career was spent playing second fiddle to Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and John Hartson, it is little wonder he didn’t feature much for the Hoops.

However, he did still manage to win three league titles and two Scottish Cups during his career and was capped by Scotland seven times.

Now a player liaison officer for the SFA, Beattie is charged with talking to the players about VAR and sharing their feedback with the national association in order to improve standards across the game.