A decade on from leaving Celtic, Georgios Samaras remains a fans favourite. Over the course of six years in Glasgow, the Greek striker contributed to some major moments for the Bhoys.
After signing for Celtic in January 2008 on an initial loan-deal from Manchester City, it didn't take long for Gordon Strachan to capture him on a permanent deal and it's safe to say Samaras found his home after the move.
During his time at Celtic Park, the 6"4 forward won 4 Scottish Premierships, 2 Scottish Cups and a League Cup while scoring 71 goals in his 242 appearances.
Samaras' eye for a goal and big moments in Old Firm derbies and European clashes certainly helped him become a cult hero at the club.
🏆 #9INAROW: Georgios Samaras 9⃣
Samaras Sunday... 😍🇬🇷
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) June 9, 2020
Georgios Samaras: 'Celtic is the place where I've felt most at home in my career.'
In October 2018, Samaras announced his retirement from football at the age of 33 and after leaving Celtic, he failed to hit the same form for other clubs like West Brom, Al Hilal and Zaragoza.
Georgios Samaras exclusively told Ladbrokes Fanzone about his time at Celtic and his first impressions after arriving.
Once I stepped out onto the pitch and saw the stadium, even though it was empty, I just said "oh, wow!" You could just feel something there.
Celtic is the place where I've felt most at home in my career. Definitely. You have ups and downs, good and bad days wherever you go. But at Celtic, you're playing for a club who are striving to win something every season, and that was the number one motivation for me.
While Samaras took to Celtic quickly and embraced life in Scotland, one of his biggest struggles was the accent and to be more precise, the strong Scottish accent of then-manager Gordon Strachan.
I never felt like it was difficult for me to settle into life in Scotland, to be honest... the hardest thing for me, at first, was just understanding the accent,
I remember in the first couple of days, he kept giving me this instruction, which just sounded like "Sammy, bull-oot, bull-oot!".
I had no idea what this 'bull-oot' meant so I just couldn't understand what he was trying to say to me. Anyway, in my second or third game, we get into the dressing room and, again, he said to me "Sammy, take the ball, hold the ball, bull-oot, let's start from there." So once the meeting had finished, I went to Gary Caldwell and just said "Gaz, err... what the f***! What's bull-oot?!"
Gaz just started laughing and explained to me that the gaffer was saying "ball out", which made a lot more sense to me.
I definitely needed some time to adapt and understand the accent, but I ended up sitting next to Scott Brown in the dressing room, so we started talking a lot. He was a great teammate, by the way, a great player. Every day we would talk and talk and that helped me slowly pick up more and more words and understand the accent, and in the end I started to use them myself. So I'm a bit Scottish now.
The memories of the Greek striker racing through on goal for Celtic will remain in the minds of fans for many years and it's safe to say that Samaras' love for Celtic is as strong as ever ten years on from leaving the club.
