Celtic’s Lost Legend
The George Connelly Story

George Connolly with Bryan Cooney

Category: Sport
Pub Date: October 2007
ISBN: 1 84502 179 7
Extent: 256 pp.
Price: £17.99
Format: Hardback, 234 x 156 mm
Plate/Illustrations: 8pp



Pub date July 2008
ISBN 13 978 1 84502 210 5
Extent 256 pp.
Price £7.99
Format Paperback, 198 x 129 mm
Plates 8pp

Pre-order paperback from Amazon



Back in the early seventies, when the once-brilliant Lisbon Lions were preparing to receive their pensions, George Connelly appeared to be not just the apple of Jock Stein’s eye but the finest tree in the orchard.

Celtic were restructuring and the build was sophisticated. Who better to provide the foundation cement than a man who strolled around with the imperious authority of Franz Beckenbauer?

Connelly was a genius in size eight-and-a-half football boots. The defender could pass the ball to order, long or short, with unerring accuracy. He appeared so laid-back he made Dean Martin look like a nervous wreck. Celtic, understandably, looked forward to capitalising on a great investment, as did Scotland.

Yet there were demons queuing up to persecute Connelly. He had an unhappy marriage and, deep within him, an immutable belief that this gilded existence might not be for him. He could do anything he liked with a football but handling fame seemed beyond him. So, at 26 years of age, he walked away from his dreams.

Did he find the inner peace he craved or would those demons lead him to fresh torment? Celtic’s Lost Legend now breaks his silence for the first time and reveals why he walked away from the game and the team he loved.