Jorge Cadete is remembered at Celtic as one of the Three Amigos, the forward line that bedazzled and delighted the Parkhead public during 1996-97. He and his two compadres – Paolo Di Canio and Pierre van Hooijdonk – also had manager Tommy Burns and chairman Fergus McCann reaching for the valium. It was McCann who first coined the epithet – more a sour reference to their fanciful wage demands and antics off the pitch than their buccaneering exploits on it.

Celtic fans had good reason to be excited at the sign­ing of Cadete. Two seasons earlier, as captain of Bobby Robson’s Sporting Lisbon – then a hugely talented team containing among others Paulo Sousa and a young Luis Figo – he had scored the goals that had dumped the Glaswegians out of the UEFA Cup. A year before that he’d scored a couple for Portugal in a 5-0 thrashing of Scotland. At £400,000 he was a snip.

The story has it that the roar that greeted his debut goal was so loud the BBC had to stop recording. His signing was even immortalised on film (in The Aficionados – a Fever Pitch meets Gregory’s Girl that went straight to video). Cadete scored 25 more but the goals could not quite disguise a season bereft of trophies.

Cadete went AWOL halfway through his second season and, citing mental health problems, refused to return from Portugal. However his contribution is recorded in Celtic’s annals, he did, unwittingly, leave Scottish football a lasting gift for which every true fan should thank him. In 1999, a post-mortem into the delay of his registration as a Celtic player three years earlier led to the dismissal of the much reviled SFA chief, Jim Farry. Celtic had claimed this cost them the chance to play him against Rangers, and hence potentially affected the outcome of the title race.

Posted by voc1967 on Sunday 03 February 2019 - 06:40:00 | Comments (0)  |