With Celtic’s USA Summer Tour set to kick off next week, the fans will be looking forward to seeing their team up against two of England’s biggest clubs.
With fixtures organised against Manchester City and Chelsea, Brendan Rodgers’ men will be in for a tough test in the States against the mega-rich clubs and, of course, let’s not forget DC United who are in the middle of their season in the Eastern Conference.
But it was what happened in Celtic’s USA Tour in 2003 that had Chris Sutton reminiscing about an encounter with former Manchester United icon, Carlos Tevez.
Why Tevez ‘passed’ Celtic hero Henrik Larsson
Martin O’Neill took his Celtic team to the States at the end of the Seville season to face Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United and Boca Juniors.
Tevez was part of the Argentinian’s squad then, and after Sutton scored the only goal in a 1-0 win against them, the former Celtic hero shares why Tevez bypassed Henrik Larsson for him.
Sutton said [Daily Record], “I enjoyed going to America with Celtic. We had some tremendous p— ups over there!
“It’s changed days now of course, but I used to really like going over to the States. Those were great experiences. I remember scoring the winner against Boca Juniors at the Cleveland Browns Stadium.
“Carlos Tevez was playing. I ended up with his shirt as he passed Henrik Larsson and made a beeline for me. He said, ‘Can I have your shirt big man?!’
“I think he was about 16 at the time, mind you. I loved those trips. We played in some huge games against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, who had a young Cristiano Ronaldo when we beat them, Liverpool, Roma, we travelled all over the place.
“I like America and we went to some great places, like Seattle, Philadelphia, Washington and so on.
“It was a case of going there, getting fit and then enjoying a few beers with the guys ahead of the new season.”
Celtic have enjoyed several US Tours over the years and they have been fairly successful in terms of promoting the club across The Pond.
This year in particular, as well as beating Boca Juniors, Celtic lost 4-0 in front of a crowd of 66,722 to a Manchester United side that had Phil and Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rio Ferdinand.
Celtic also had a talented squad at that time with Stiliyan Petrov, Bobo Balde, Alan Thompson and Neil Lennon lining up alongside Sutton and Larsson.
It’s now Brendan Rodgers’ turn to take his team to the States and the fans will be hoping that they will fare better against Chelsea and Manchester City than the 2003 team did against the Red Devils.
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