The debate over the world’s best footballing atmosphere will never have a definite answer, however, there is no shortage of legendary players putting Celtic Park’s name into the hat. The debate has Paradise up against other famous grounds like La Bombonera, Signal Iduna Park, Anfield and San Mames, just to name a few. One of the game’s greatest players in recent history, Kaka, has had his say though.
In an era that has been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka is the one of the few who has managed to win a Ballon d’Or during this period of time.
The Brazilian legend has played for clubs like AC Milan, Real Madrid, Sau Paulo and Orlando City through the course of his career, thus, he will have experienced almost every top atmosphere that there is.
And it appears that Kaka believes that Celtic Park comes out on top. As reported by Football Scotland, new Hibernian signing, Chris Mueller told BBC Scotland:
"“Just before I had made my move over here I was speaking with Ricardo Kaka in Orlando, just about my move because he was obviously following me knowing him from Orlando.“I was speaking with him at this event that we were at and he was telling me that: ‘Scotland, you’re going to love playing there’.“And you know out of all the places he’d played in his career Celtic Park in a Champions League night when he was at AC Milan was the best he had played.”"
Kaka puts Celtic Park on top
Mueller, who joined Orlando City a year after Kaka’s retirement, signed a pre-contract with Hibernian over the summer, and could even end up making his debut for the club at Celtic Park.
While the exact ranking of top atmospheres in the world will always be up for discussion, it is safe to say that Celtic Park will be near the top of the list.
Kaka, who won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil and 2007 Champions League with AC Milan, is not the only one who has praised the Celtic Park atmosphere over the years. The likes of Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Michael Owen, Bastian Schweinsteiger and many others have as well.
It must be said though that it has been a while since Celtic participated in the Champions League and will be hoping to return to Europe’s elite competition next season.