The truth about a fight between the Celtic players at the club’s training group has finally come to light, years after the incident.
As a professional footballer, you probably expect to be clattered a couple of times while on the pitch. One thing that you never expect though is getting punched in the face by our own teammate, giving you a black. But it looks like that is exactly happened between former Celtic stars, Aiden McGeady and Artur Boruc, if the winger’s anecdote is to be believed.
There have always been rumours that two did not get along during their time at the club, and it looks like that they are true judging by McGeady’s own admission while appearing on Open Goal with Si Ferry and Paul Slane.
The fight came out of something as meaningless as a free-kick in training and led to Boruc giving McGeady a black eye, while the winger later tried to wrestle the goalie in the shower. In hindsight, the story is quite hilarious and something you would not believe if it was not coming from one of the men involved in the incident.
Speaking of the incident, McGeady said:
"“He was in the wrong that day. There were times when I was in the wrong, I’ve been cheeky to people and got a punch, but he was in the wrong that day.“We were arguing about a free kick. Artur was like ‘play on, play on’ and I said ‘mate shut up, it’s a free kick’. When I said that, he’s obviously flipped. I was standing and I’ve heard people saying ‘woah woah!’, so I turned around and big Artur was running at me.“He went to throw a punch but I’ve moved out of the way of it and he did a forward roll after. I asked what he was playing at and he said ‘I’ll get you in there’… and to be fair he did get me in there.“I was sitting reading a paper, it was quiet sly the way he did it because he was standing above me. He offered his hand and said he was sorry about earlier on.“So I put my hand out and he just went bang and cracked me. It was a good punch because I had an immediate black eye. I tried to get him back. I stood up, obviously raging, I’m not going to batter Artur Boruc, am I?“He is an absolute streetwise, 6ft 4, Polish bear, do you know what I mean? He could actually handle himself as well. I tried to get back at him, everyone is in the middle, and I’m cutting about with this black eye.“Artur’s like ‘I told you, I told you’ and then walked in the shower, and a few guys are about mixing it like, ‘I wouldn’t be taking that man’. So I thought ‘you’re right’. I just went in the shower after him but he spotted me coming and got me again.“I’m trying to wrestle him. I had my training kit on but he was naked. “I was trying to get a dig in at him but he was man handling me to the ground. He was ready to boot me but Gaz Caldwell and [Glenn Loovens] grabbed him and wrestled him away.”"
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Just reading that is hilarious and shows you how childish professional footballers can be at times. Should that be happening between teammates? Quite frankly, no. But at least a great story came out of it and it did not have any adverse effect on the pitch.
Both men went on to have good careers for the Hoops. McGeady came through the club’s academy and made 200 appearances for them, scoring 32 goals and providing 48 assists during his time at Parkhead.
On the other hand, Boruc made 192 appearances for the Hoops and became a cult leader at the club before going on to achieve success in both Italy and England. And Celtic could do with two players who are as good as the two were in their prime. Minus the training ground bust ups and locker-room fights, obviously!