Celtic FC: The Bhoys in Green and White

Athletic Club will play Celtic FC at Celtic Park on Tuesday August 1 at 20:30 CEST. This is only the second time Los Leones have taken on the Scottish side, their first encounter a mid-season exhibition at the old San Mames in March 2011.

A 0-0 draw, the event made quite an impression as the handful of Celtic supporters who travelled over sat with the Athletic fans to create a festive spirit at The Cathedral.

August’s duel will serve as James Forrest’s testimonial in addition to falling under Athletic’s 125th anniversary celebrations. 

James Forrest, born just 30 miles outside Glasgow in Prestwick, has now spent all 14 seasons of his career at his boyhood club. The 32-year-old winger recently signed a contract extension until 2025, potentially extending his time with the Celts to 15 seasons, just like Iker Muniain and Oscar de Marcos at Athletic. To date, Forrest has made a total of 467 appearances and scored 102 goals for Celtic.

The Hoops are no strangers to One-Club Men, with their players being known to show fierce loyalty to the green and white stripes. One such example is Billy McNeill, legendary captain of Celtic’s 1967 European Cup winning side, The Lisbon Lions.

In recognition of his Celtic career, which included 822 appearances across 18 seasons, McNeill won Athletic’s 2019 One-Club Man Award, with his daughter, Susan, and former teammate, John Clark, coming to Bilbao to collect the accolade in his honour as Billy passed away three weeks after being named winner of the award.

A club steeped in history and tradition

A club steeped in history and tradition, Celtic was founded by Irish priest Brother Walfrid in 1887 with the goal of raising funds for Glasgow’s impoverished Irish immigrant community.

They have played at the 60,000 seater Celtic Park since 1892, and the stadium is often referred to as Paradise or Parkhead, the neighbourhood where the ground is located.

The Celts have just completed a fifth domestic treble in seven seasons. They finished seven points ahead of Rangers in the league, beat their cross-city rivals to the Scottish League Cup and defeated Inverness CT 3-1 in the Scottish Cup final. Celtic have an incredible total of 116 major titles: 53 league championships, 41 Scottish Cups, 21 Scottish League Cups and one European Cup.

Brendan Rodgers, new head coach

The Glasgow-based outfit recently reappointed Brendan Rodgers as head coach. The Northern Irish tactician previously led the 'Bhoys' for two and a half seasons, from 2016 to 2019, achieving two consecutive domestic trebles, with the first season even seeing them go unbeaten in all domestic competitions.

Rodgers also has a proven track record in English football, where he has managed Swansea, Liverpool and Leicester. He was runner-up in the Premier League at the Reds, while with the Foxes he won an FA Cup and secured European qualification two seasons in a row.

Club captain is midfielder Callum McGregor  –  another One-Club Man in the making – while they also have a host of internationals brought in from around the world, such as Alistair Johnston (Canada, 34 caps), Cameron Carter-Vickers (USA, 12 caps), Oh Hyeon-gyu (South Korea, five caps) and Kyogo Furuhashi (Japan, 17 caps), the 2022/23 Scottish Premiership golden boot winner with 26 strikes in 36 appearances. What's more, Kyogo is one of no less than five Japanese players in the squad.

A port city based on the River Clyde, Glasgow has a population of 1,900,000 and its inhabitants are called Glaswegians. In a similar vein to Bilbao, industry, specifically shipbuilding, has played a huge role in Glasgow’s history. What’s more, Glaswegians are famous for their distinctive dialect, which derives from Scots, but has been heavily influenced by Irish English.