(Scotland on Sunday, 15/10/06)
Scotland's reluctant Beckenbauer
MARTIN HANNAN (mhannan@scotlandonsunday.com)
He was the lost genius of Scottish football, hailed as the new Franz Beckenbauer and a player so skilful it made you weep when you learned that the young man was also fatally flawed. For George Connelly, perhaps second only to Jim Baxter as the most naturally talented all-round footballer this country has ever produced, did not want to be a star.
The name of Connelly appeared in the public prints again last week when Garry O'Connor absented himself from the Scotland party to play Ukraine – Connelly did something similar back in 1973, the season in which he became Scotland's Player of the Year, walking out at the airport as Willie Ormond's side prepared to board the plane to Switzerland. He would bale out of Celtic several times during an erratic career that lasted less than a decade and saw him win just two Scotland caps – which actually came after his walkout. Ormond, who had his own demons, was a forgiving sort. On January 12, 1966, while Connelly was just 16, Jock Stein sent him on to the Parkhead pitch at half-time in the European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final first leg against Dynamo Kiev. Connelly thrilled the crowd with an astonishing display of keepie-uppy, dancing round the ground while keeping the ball off the turf – his average at this art was said to be 2,000 non-stop.
The young Fifer could play anywhere on the pitch, but lacked a yard of pace and Stein eventually came to see him as the rock on which to build the defence which would succeed that of the Lisbon Lions. Described as possibly the best of Celtic's famed "Quality Street Kids" – Kenny Dalglish, Lou Macari, Danny McGrain and Davie Hay were four others – Connelly was catapulted to fame when, playing on the right wing in place of Jimmy Johnstone, he helped destroy Rangers in front of 133,000 fans in the Scottish Cup final of 1969, scoring one goal and making another. The tragedy was that the shy and gawky Connelly simply could not handle the pressures of life in the limelight, and frequently slipped away from Parkhead saying he was finished with the game. But he was taken back by Stein after every walkout, eventually managing to play more than 250 times for Celtic.
But the club's patience eventually ran out and Celtic finally released Connelly in 1976. He made an abortive comeback for Falkirk then slipped into the junior ranks with the likes of Tulliallan Thistle. In effect, he was finished at 28. Connelly now lives quietly in a peaceful part of central Scotland on the north bank of the Forth. In the local pubs he frequents, he is spoken of as a "genuinely nice guy", who likes a drink but avoids journalists.
At 57, he is apparently unemployed, and his last home in a tower block of council flats in Kincardine is boarded up. Scotland on Sunday is aware of his location, but respects his wish for privacy. By a twist of fate, no sooner has his name resurfaced than Celtic meet Benfica in the Champions League. It was against the Portuguese giants in December 1974 that Connelly made one of his many comebacks and hit perhaps one of the finest passes ever to be seen at Parkhead. Down 2-1 after 52 minutes of the UNICEF Children's Cup benefit match, Connelly picked up the ball on the right edge of Celtic's penalty area, looked up and sent a 60-yard pass forward to drop just inches over the flailing arms of the Benfica defender Artur, right into the path of Jimmy Johnstone who raced away to score a memorable goal. It was a stunning moment, a pass that Beckenbauer himself would have been proud of, but Benfica went on to win the match on penalties
That was Celtic's second encounter with Benfica. Their first matches against the Portuguese club took place in season 1969-70, and helped to change football forever. Tommy Gemmell, Willie Wallace and Harry Hood gave the Celts a 3-0 lead in the first leg at Parkhead in November 1969, but in Lisbon, the legendary Eusebio got the first as Benfica snatched a last-gasp 3-0 victory. With the aggregate still level after extra time, the two captains and club officials were called together into the referee's room when the coin was tossed not once, but twice. As the away team captain, Billy McNeill was given the "honour" of calling first to decide who would make the call at the second and vital toss. McNeill recalled the moments in his autobiography Hail Caesar: "Having called 'heads' to earn that right, I stuck with my hunch and called 'heads' again as the coin was about to land. Thankfully, my luck held." Celtic had made history by becoming the last team to progress in the European Cup thanks to a tossed coin.
Winning in that fashion disgusted Sir Robert Kelly, Celtic's patrician chairman. He wrote a strongly-worded letter to UEFA, which was already concerned about the issue. And after uproar in Italy, when Gornik Zabrze of Poland qualified for the final of that season's European Cup Winner's Cup by beating AS Roma on the toss of a coin, UEFA acted to introduce the penalty shoot-out. Ironically, the first team to go out of European competition after a shoot-out was also Scottish. In 1970, Eddie Turnbull's Aberdeen were beaten 5-4 on penalties in Hungary after an aggregate 4-4 draw with Honved – a piece of history the Dons could have done without.
Earlier that year, Celtic had won arguably the greatest of all of football's "Battles of Britain", defeating Don Revie's Leeds United home and away in the European Cup semi-final before losing to Feyenoord in the final. In that semi-final first leg, Connelly scored what proved to the be winning goal after just a minute or so of play, and he came on as substitute for Bertie Auld after 77 minutes of the final against Feyenoord in Milan. He was just 21, but unknown to himself and his legion of admirers, Connelly had already reached the pinnacle of his footballing career. Connelly will not be at Celtic Park on Tuesday night. Reportedly he has not been back since the day he left 30 years ago. No matter the outcome of that game, it will not be mere chance alone that decides whether Celtic or Benfica progress to the next stage of the Champions' League. By most accounts, however, George Connelly could do with a change of fortune. Those who love Scottish football played the skilfull way will wish Celtic's errant son all the luck in the world.