Achi news desk-
The world was his oyster earlier in his football career as he had several big clubs buzzing around him when he was just a teenager.
He had Experiments At Rangers and Liverpool but his dream came true when boyhood club Celtic came calling at the age of 18.
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But the dream did not stop there as he continued to fulfill it history at Parkhead by scoring one of the club’s most emblematic goalswhich is still talked about to this day.
Tony Watt, now 30, had the world at his feet when he came through the youth ranks at Airdrie, although he only played football Just for fun a few years before.
He joined Airdrie’s under-17 team in 2009 after impressing future manager Jimmy Boyle in a bounce-back game.
the promiser pioneer Scored goals for fun for the youth team and was promoted to the senior team in 2010, before sealing his £80,000 move to the Hoops less than a year later.
But his career could have gone very differently when he trained with Old Firm rivals Rangers And also went for a short tour in Liverpool.
Opened his time in the South, Watt said God open Goal Podcast in 2018: “I went down to Liverpool for three days and two days later they had me do a blip test so I knew it was game over!
“These are boys my age who came through academies full-time and I was playing on the streets just 18 months before that.
“They are at a high pace so I was never going to go down there and run the Appearance.
“When I stood trial with CelticI had that adrenaline rush and nobody took that away from me.
“My first game was at Celtic Park Against Liverpool then I had a point to prove.
“I ejected in the corner after two minutes.
“We had a pre-match – I’ve never heard of a pre-match in my life!
“I think I ate something (it wasn’t right) and I made a channel to the corner.
“I had two boys on me so I’m trying to get out of it and I’m trying to boot it from them to get a corner but I think I wished it on myself and it went off.
“I just turned around and (was sick) right at the corner flag. I’m thinking ‘Oh no, they’re going to send me on the train back to Coatbridge!’
“I think I just got my second wind and I think we won 2-1 and I won both penalties and I was on cloud nine. I wasn’t tired after that just because it was Celtic.
“Chris McCart pulled me aside after the game and said they wanted to sign me in January.
“It was the first week of November and I must have had 50 days or so to wait – my head was spinning.
“I played games but it helped me at Airdrie because I thought ‘if I have a bad game then Celtic are not going to sign me’.
“I was so scared, I listened to Celtic Lyrics All the time.”
He will always be remembered for that goal against Barcelona in November 2012.
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Just 19 at the time, he was called on by Neil Lennon in the second half of the Champions League thriller as Celtic won 1-0.
And he grabbed the headlines by becoming the youngest to make it two in the 83rd minute, scoring one of the most iconic wins in the club’s history, with Lionel Messi scoring in stoppage time to pull one back.
But Watt does not see this goal as the highlight of his career.
Instead he insists on his first-team debut against Motherwell in April – when he scored twice in five minutes fire The hoops forward – will always remain with him as the best game of his career.
Asked whether the Barcelona The goal was the highlight, he replied: “No, it was my debut.
“Running on making my Celtic debut, knowing my name is on the back of the sheet and scoring two goals in front of all the fans.
“It was close but the debut probably just took it out.”
Despite his meteoric rise in his teenage years, Watt made just 14 starts for the Hoops before his exit in summer of 2014.
He spent the 2013/14 season on loan at Liers and returned Belgium The following year to sign with Standard Liège permanently.
Questions have been asked about the striker’s mentality when he fell out of favor at Parkhead, but he reckons his handling of Glasgow Leave it in a dark place.
And once he was told Celtic no longer wanted him, he was left heartbroken.
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Watt continued: “Celtic called me in January and said they wanted to sell me.
“Lennon used to butcher me for the way I trained, but after January my confidence dropped after they said that (wanted to sell me).
“I had Super League Teams that want to sign me. My agent arranged it.
“But they couldn’t get (Juan) Agudo through the door so they were like, ‘No you’re not going.’
“They told me they wanted to sell me to get some Of money And within three days they said you weren’t going.
“My head was all over the place, I couldn’t believe it.
“I can’t remember if it was to Knoxtown that I was at but it felt like my heart had just been pulled.
“I wasn’t right after that. I knew it was just a means to an end. I was in one team against Juventus So not in the team for Dandy United b Home In the weekend.
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“My confidence just went, I wasn’t the same player and I think the guys knew that. I think the guys felt sorry for me because I wasn’t in the right place.”
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