Kieran Tierney

That's cos he's living the dream. Let's face it, if you're on stupid money PLAYING FOR CELTIC as a career, do you really need to grow up?

 

Everycunt had that as their ringtone, was it about 2006

 

Lonely and Smack That were the tunes.

 

I passed me driving test in 2004 and had that pumping on my wee red clio

 

Same a year later in my we black 206 1.1 gti copy * was i thinking. Good days

 

Should give Futurama a second chance KT mate.

 

Wierd question but does anyone have footage of KT running at full pelt? trying to settle and argument in work.

Huns trying to say hes slow and that tavernier is faster. all the highlights ive looked at though whenever hes never needed to run fast because of his positioning.

 

His goal at Aberdeen when he ran the full length of the pitch to score should show it.

 

One of his key attributes is his pace ffs.

 

cheers. the guys not stupid but hes just blind to all things rangers . i brought cakes into work after the treble and he refused to eat any, shame i made sure i bought his favourite.

 

Aye KT could take a ball up North Portland St faster than Tavernier coming down it.

Those videos are excellent, his footwork is pure class.

Brilliant

 

He's gonna be tremendous next year with a full break/holiday..

What a player..

 

Ye should a smashed them aff his stupid hun coupon.

 

Cracking article in the daily rags website on him and his admiration for the guys that dun grass roots football in his home town.

Speaks very humble, no airs and graces around this lad. An absolute diamond.

Obviously not going to link it but well worth looking up and reading.

 

The Bullfrog pub in Muirhouse isn’t much on the eye. Barely even looks like a pub.

Drive past it, sunken down on the dual carriageway between Motherwell and Wishaw and, minus the two red ‘T’s hanging off the front, you wouldn’t give it a second glance. Just another house in just another scheme. While Celtic Park fills Kieran Tierney’s heart, though, The Bullfrog, to him, is football’s soul.



Where it’s not about the money, the crowds, the glory, the pressure, the sponsors, the corporates. It’s just about the game. About community.

Where your mates pay to play for their team every Sunday and you stand at the side and watch them because that’s what mates do.

Even mates who’ve captained Celtic and Scotland before their 21st 
birthday, mates with telephone
number value who’ve played in the Champions League.

It’s football at its purest, unfettered, unburdened.

Exactly why Tierney loves it – and exactly why he’s backing this year’s McDonald’s/Sunday Mail Grassroots Awards. Even when he hears his name sung to the heavens by 60,000 fans on a weekly basis, he knows without the unsung heroes, there’s no adulation, no pathway, no Celtic, no career.


No football.

There are certain big names he’ll treasure forever. Ronny Deila gave him his Hoops debut and Brendan 
Rodgers has developed his talent.

For his country, Gordon Strachan handed Tierney his first cap while Malky Mackay put the skipper’s 
armband around his bicep.


But those huge characters in the game jostle for space in his affections alongside the likes of Joe Ward, Peter Reilly, Martin Millar, Martin Ford.

The first three were instrumental in his journey, the fourth the manager of Bullfrog AFC, the job he reckons he’ll be doing in 20 years’ time.

They’re the volunteers who keep the game’s heart beating in places like Muirhouse and Netherton where he grew up with a ball at his feet and hope in his heart.


And few appreciate more than Tierney the fact there are thousands more like them in every other corner of the country.

First to the park and last away. Lining pitches, washing kits, driving mini buses, raising funds, booking refs, coaching kids, opening doors, including the excluded, engaging the disengaged, putting arms round shoulders and feet up backsides.

But who never ask for anything in return, other than the knowledge they’re making a difference to the lives of other people.


It’s why the 21-year-old buys the team’s strips every season.

Not because he can afford it but because he understands the value of it. Of the fact that every contribution means something and the fact that football’s for life.

And it’s why he took time out of his pre-season prep to endorse a 
programme that has recognised 
hundreds of the game’s footsoliders in the past 15 years.

Tierney said: “The Bullfrog has been part of my life since I was a kid.

“My dad would walk us down and we’d watch their games. And I’d do what kids do, I’d nick out on to the pitch at half-time with a ball for a few crosses and finishes.

“It has always been my local but now it’s my mates who are playing and people from our area go and watch.

“And they’re good. The manager is Martin Ford. He has been there six years and has won 18 cups with them– they’ve actually just finished a double Treble same as Celtic!


“Bullfrog play in the Airdrie and Coatbridge League and their home games are down in Muirhouse.

“You always get a good crowd and I’m there every single game on a 
Sunday as long as Celtic aren’t playing. It’s a priority for me, seriously.

“It’s brilliant, honestly. I just love the fact that grassroots football is so important to people.

“I buy their strips every year, blue and gold – at least they’re hoops!

“If I can help out with boots or balls or bibs or anything else they need, then I do my best for them.

“They love the game, same as me, but they pay to play. A fiver towards paying for the ref, the pitch and what have you. I just know if I wasn’t here, I’d be right there with them, paying my fiver every week as well.

“Maybe I will be in the future. I’d actually like to manage them one day, that’s my dream! It’s a serious point though, keeping football going past the youth side of the game is really hard.


People have kids and jobs but they are there without fail for their mates every Sunday.

“And sure, a lot of them come rough – I’m not saying they’re fresh! The goalie’s legendary for it but he’s different class. At that level he’s the best I’ve seen. He could have gone further, I’m sure.

“But it’s grassroots football at its best and I just love being around it.

“I get talking to a lot of the guys who run the leagues and the 
Scottish * Cup. They’re always saying they appreciate me being around their games.

“I just love being there though. It’s great that the guys who do so much, and do it all for nothing, have a chance to get some 
recognition for it.”

Tierney was one of 
European football’s 
ultimate iron men last 
season with 60 
appearances for club 
and country.

And when you sit and speak to him, you just know there’s not a 
second of it he didn’t love and appreciate with every fibre of his being.



A passion born at home through his mum and dad, and a flame first fanned on the pitch down the road at 
St Brendan’s Primary.

He said: “My first football memories are of that ash park at my primary school. I’d go down there aged three and four, before I started school.

“My dad would take me and let me shoot at him.

“I was constantly at him and my sister to go with me there so I could kick a ball.

“At school there was a 
Thursday club every week – the girls would disappear and do their stuff and the boys would play football.

“It was run by parents, a guy called Joe Ward especially, who volunteered their time.

“Joe is still involved in a lot of grassroots football in our area around Motherwell and Wishaw, I see him around a lot.

“You’d get penalty kicks at the end and if you scored you’d get a bag of crisps as your reward.



One of the guys there said I should join a club – and the local team was Netherton FC.

“I was six and my coach was Peter Reilly. It was mixed age groups initially but when we got put into groups he moved me up one to the 96s, playing a year above my age.

“It was the same experience as most kids – training, games every Saturday morning.

“The pitch was just up the road from me, about 10 minutes away, so I’d walk up, boots in one hand, bottle of Lucozade in the other – after a roll on sausage for breakfast 
obviously! It was brilliant, I loved it so much.

“Get your boots on, get out there and play. It’s still in my head as the best, most enjoyable time of my childhood. Playing with your pals.”

At that age, your coach is rarely ever just a coach. A dressing room is rarely just somewhere to pull your boots on. It’s a school away from school –and Tierney
 eloquently expresses his appreciation.





“Guys like Peter,” he insisted, “they’re there to teach you about more than football. I read a great Ronaldinho quote: ‘You learn about life with a ball at your feet.’

“I can relate to that. I can’t remember anything
other than football but in that environment, under guys like Peter, that’s where you learn all your people skills, your manners, ability to be part of a team.

“They’re things that serve you well in life, not just in the game.”

Tierney’s Celtic story has been well documented, the baby-faced pics of his progress through the ranks appearing with every fresh milestone reached.

But he’s no less thankful for 
the contribution of those who gave up their time for him now he’s a fixture in the first team.

He said: “I was seven when Celtic scouted me so it got serious quite early and I didn’t get to enjoy the fun side of football for long.



“I still had my roll on sausage until about last year, right enough!

“We’d train at Hamilton Palace on a Friday night. John McStay scouted me – he came over one day at Netherton training.

“Sometimes you’d know if there were scouts there – that someone from Motherwell or Hibs was 
coming along – but we didn’t know McStay was there.

“After the game Peter shouted on my dad to go and have a chat. Ten 
minutes after that he says: ‘You’ve got a trial with Celtic.’

“And I’m like: ‘Shut up, man. No chance.’

“It was Hughie McGovern, who’s the kitman for the U20s now, and Martin 
Millar who’s a coach in the academy.

“Martin was the guy who I’d still say had the biggest influence
on me and my life




“I still speak to him most days and have so much to thank him
for since I was about seven.

“You couldn’t actually sign with Celtic until you were nine or 10 so I was still playing boys’ club 
football, training Tuesday and Thursday with them, Friday with Celtic, playing a game Saturday.

“You were only allowed to 
train for them in six-week blocks. Every time you had to get asked back for the next one – every six weeks for two years and I was always panicking that I wouldn’t get asked back the next time. You got a wee letter every time to say they want you back.”

At 21, you’ve barely had time to assemble regrets – but if Tierney has even the kernel of one, it’s that he didn’t get to enjoy the other cornerstone of kids’ football, 
playing with his mates at school.

“I played at St Brendan’s,” he said. “I remember going to a 
tournament and we were in P4 playing against P7s.

“It was so unfair and we were getting beat 10-0 every game.




But by the time I got to Our Lady’s High School I was being told not to play by the club in case I got injured.

“I still played the odd game – and if I did it was in goals!

“It was Miss McNeish 
who took the team, Chris and Nicky Cadden were there at the time too.

“It was a shame we didn’t get the chance but even my mum and dad were 
worried, 
saying ‘You better not play in case anything happens.’

“It takes a bit of the fun out of football when that 
happens.

“You’re still 
so young and 
you treasure just playing with your pals sometimes, when you are that age.

“But in the long run, who knows what could have happened?

“We’d still jump the fence at the school and go and play together sometimes – red ash parks and everything. They were brutal but it was the only place that had goals and you didn’t need to pay.


Obviously, it’s a different world for me now but there are some things I won’t change – and being around the guys at the Bullfrog on Sundays is one of them.

“These awards are great. I love the fact there’s a chance for all the guys in * football, youth football, schools football, to get some credit – because it’s long overdue for what they do in their communities.”

 

Every time i read stuff like this, I fall in love with him just a little bit more

 

You can’t not love this boy! Honestly if he ever leaves this will be the most gutted I have been