marc rieper: a bhoy's own story

Gregor Kyle
AS part of a series taken from the Celtic View, we have been taking a trip down memory lane with a host of past Celtic favourites to get their own personal take on what it was like to pull on a Celtic shirt. Next up is Marc Rieper.

IN the historic ‘stopping the 10’ season, Celtic’s title victory was one built on a solid defensive foundation.

It was a season of incredible pressure, with supporters desperate to win the championship and halt Rangers’ attempt to beat the club’s record of consecutive title wins.

Arriving at Celtic Park in the summer of 1997 from West Ham United, Marc Rieper soon grasped the importance of victory and immediately adapted to the demands and pressures, forging an impressive partnership in the centre of defence with Alan Stubbs.

The Danish internationalist was soon hailed a hero by the Celtic support, who immediately recognised his ability as a top-class defender.

Unfortunately that championship-winning season concluded with a serious foot injury which prematurely ended his playing career at the age of 32. However few players had squeezed so much into his brief Celtic career.

He is still remembered by supporters as an outstanding defender and remains a popular figure on his trips back to Glasgow.

Here Marc gives his Bhoy’s Own Story.

IT’S hard to remember my first memory of Celtic, but I knew a lot about the club, even before I moved to England to join West Ham United. One of my coaches when I was a youngster at Aarhus was Bent Martin, the former Celtic goalkeeper. I also remember Aarhus playing Celtic in the European Cup and I was actually a ball-boy at that game. I don’t remember much about the game itself, I really just remember the green and white Hoops and I think that’s the same for a lot of people. In Denmark people who like their football know about Celtic. I am not sure how much they know about the history of the club or the rivalry with Rangers, but I think that every Danish football fan knows about Celtic.

I actually have two highlights from my time at Celtic, two very different moments that I will never forget. The first was the season 1997/98 as a whole. Winning the title that season was fantastic, unreal and the atmosphere between the team and the supporters was fantastic. The second moment had nothing to do with football, but was going the funeral of the young boy, Oran Docherty in Donegal. He was one of the victims of the Omagh bombing and I went to his funeral, where there must have been about 30-40,000 people outside the church. The family asked me to carry his coffin that day and the whole experience, just helping to bring a smile to the faces of the Docherty family was something amazing. He was a great Celtic supporter and I had been asked by the board to attend his funeral in Ireland. It was something I had no hesitation in participating in and it was a great honour. His coffin was covered in a Celtic flag and he had his Celtic strip on. It was an experience and a moment that I really cherish. I invited the family to Glasgow for an Old Firm game afterwards and we had a good time there. That moment at the funeral showed me how small things that you do for others can really bring some happiness to people’s lives.

IN terms of regrets, I always look back on the way the title-winning season and the way that Wim Jansen left the club after we had won the championship. Another was the row that surrounded our appearance money for the Champions League, that’s something that I am definitely not proud to look back on. Wim’s situation was his own decision, but it was a sad moment for all of us and took a bit of the joy out of the title win. But afterwards all that argy-bargy with Fergus and our appearance money, that was a bad situation as well. It put the players in a bad light and looking back, we would more or less have played in the Champions League for nothing. It was a situation that got out of hand and I would have maybe handled that better.

IT’S funny because I always did quite well against Alan Shearer, but he always seemed to score when we played against him! So I think that Alan Shearer was one of my toughest opponents and the guy who scored the most goals against teams I have played for. At Celtic my toughest opponent was actually a Celtic player. I remember the game we played against Dinamo Zagreb and I was up against Mark Viduka and he was absolutely outstanding.

I loved playing at Celtic Park, it was a fantastic ground to play at. But I have always loved to play in the big games, so I would have to say that my favourite ground apart from Celtic Park was Ibrox. Some people might not like that, but it was the biggest game that you could possibly play in and the atmosphere was always great. The Celtic supporters were fantastic when we played at Ibrox. I also played at Ibrox with Denmark and we beat Scotland 1-0. Although we might have lost a few times when I played there with Celtic, I have some very good memories of playing at Ibrox.

WHEN I look back today I am just very happy that my injury didn’t happen when I was 22. I was lucky enough to have played for some fantastic clubs and 60-odd times for Denmark. I have some fantastic memories from the clubs I have played for and played against, so although it was a shame and a pity, I didn’t feel sorry for myself because I had some great memories. I would have loved to have played for another three or four years for Celtic but it just wasn’t to be. When Kenny Dalglish took over as manager I was asked to be his assistant for a period of time and I did that with great joy, alongside Tommy Burns. Then afterwards, when Martin O’Neill came to the club, I helped him for the first three or four months and that was another great experience, so I was nursed into retirement. I still felt involved with the team and everything around the club, so it was more or less my decision when I hung boots up because I knew there was nothing left in me. Although I feel okay now, I don’t think the operations went as well, in terms of bringing me back to 100 per cent and if you are not 100 per cent you cannot perform at that level.

CHRISTMAS was always a very busy football period in both England and in Scotland. Normally you would spend time with your family, but I couldn’t go back to Denmark so my family would come to London or Glasgow to celebrate Christmas with me. They would attend the games and although I would be in hotels with the team before matches, I would get to see them when I went home. I remember my Scottish Christmases as being very good. Even today we still go away for Christmas and in recent years I have been to Australia and South Africa. I like being in Denmark, but we like taking a hike as well and experiencing different things over the Christmas period. It’s a good time to go away because the kids are off school.

I think that for both me and my family the period we enjoyed the most in our footballing career was being in Glasgow at Celtic. The people we met there were really kind to us and that was on both sides of the fence. We had a lot of Rangers fans as friends and they treated us really well too, although they thought we were playing for the wrong club! The Celtic supporters were fantastic though and it was just a fantastic experience for us. When I go to Glasgow today and take some of my friends over with me I tell them that there is a chance I might get stopped in the street. But even I can’t believe how people remember me and how often I get stopped. Even kids who have never seen me play stop me and how they got to know me I don’t know. They must have been shown videos by their Dad or Granddads and that’s quite amazing. It shows you how passionate the supporters are about Celtic Football Club. It’s actually something that Danish supporters don’t understand.

WHEN I was growing up I actually wanted to be a chef. I have always been very interested in wine and food and how to prepare food. I still love cooking today, so having a restaurant, hotel and café wasn’t something that came out of the blue. I loved being involved in the hotel business and it’s something that I cherish and wouldn’t be without, but I’ve actually just sold my hotel, restaurant and café and I am quite pleased with the timing of that. With the way the financial climate is at the moment it was probably the right time for me to get out.

MY advice to any young player who wants to play for Celtic is to be humble. When I try to explain to people in Denmark the kind of hype that surrounds the football club I tend to use Sean Connery and Rod Stewart as examples. Everybody in Denmark knows who they are, so I say that the order of popularity in Scotland goes: Rod Stewart, Sean Connery and then the football players. Politicians and public figures, who are pretty important people in Denmark, are secondary to football in Scotland. Danish people don’t believe me when I say that, but it gives them an understanding of how big football is in Scotland and Glasgow in particular. You can get carried away with that kind of hype if you don’t keep your feet on the ground, so I think it’s very important to stay humble. You might come from an anonymous background and suddenly become a major star. That’s difficult for some people to handle.