August unveiling for Jinky statue

THE project to build a statue of Jimmy Johnstone, which will commemorate and celebrate the life of the Celtic legend, is well underway, with the unveiling at Celtic Park scheduled for this August.

The statue of Jimmy is being funded solely by the club and will be positioned at the main entrance at Celtic Park. And it will serve as a permanent memorial of the man supporters voted the Greatest Ever Celt.

A brave and skilful player on the park, Jimmy Johnstone also showed incredible courage off the field as he battled Motor Neurone Disease. Sadly, two years ago on March 13, 2006, Jimmy passed away.

The decision by Celtic to erect a statue of Jimmy outside Celtic Park has been welcomed by Jimmy’s widow, Agnes.

She said: “It is wonderful that Jimmy is to be honoured in this way at Celtic Park and our family is very grateful to the club for this gesture.

“Clearly Celtic Park played such a huge part in Jimmy's life and it is fantastic that this permanent tribute will now be placed at the stadium for fans to see.”

With the tendering process completed, a sculptor has now been appointed and work has already started on the statue.

Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell commented: “We are really looking forward to the completion of the Jimmy Johnstone memorial statue.

“Work is well underway on this project and we intend to officially unveil the finished sculpture in August, for the start of next season.

“The anniversary of Jimmy's sad passing always focuses our minds on the immense talent and character which Jimmy possessed. Clearly, he is still very sadly missed by Celtic FC, by our supporters and by Scottish football in general.

“The club will be making a substantial investment into this memorial statue and we are sure it will be a fitting tribute to Celtic's greatest ever player.”<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

A fitting tribute by the club for a legend...well done Celtic...

 

brilliant m8,,,,when big jock died i remember the club took some stick for not putting a statue up ,they ended up with the bust of his head,

good to see lessons learned

 

will it be of him as a player or of him when he is older

 

tt as a player i would hope so anyway.

 

Brilliant,

 

Nice one.

 

hopes its a statue in this form, that'd be class

 

fantastic gesture by the club and the fans will love it as will jinkys family, cant wait to see it

 

Great stuff, RIP wee man, was singing your song tonight, hail hail

 

About * time.

RafaelScheidt- nice.

 

well done celtic in doing this great tribute to not only celtic's greatest ever player but a true gentleman aswell

 

great stuff a fitting tribute ,hail hail

 

well done to the board and everyone at Celtic for this, truly deserved.

Jinky will live on forever