From Rejection to Glory: Didier Agathe's Remarkable Celtic Journey

When Didier Agathe sped away from Chrstian Chivu and coolly slotted home Celtic’s second goal of the evening, he was announcing himself to a wider audience.

Celtic fans had already seen what his devastating pace could do on the domestic stage in the 2000-01 season. Now, he was demonstrating it against Ajax’s highly rated young Romanian defender - a player who would go on to feature in Inter Milan’s Champions League winning side in 2010.

Back in 2001, everyone’s eyes were on Agathe as the Bhoys defeated Ajax in the first leg of the Champions League playoff round at the Amsterdam Arena (since renamed as the Johan Cruyff Arena).

Bobby Petta had already opened the scoring for Celtic when Agathe received Henrik Larsson’s excellent pass on the right wing. The Frenchman accelerated and left Chivu for dead before putting his name on the scoresheet. After future Rangers striker Shota Arveladze had pulled one back for the hosts, Agathe crossed for Chris Sutton to bullet home Celtic’s third.

Agathe said, “People often criticised my crossing but that was a good one.”

But this match was about much more than Agathe’s two goal involvements. It was about Celtic getting back on the biggest stage, and one player’s difficult personal journey reaching extraordinary heights.

“There was huge motivation for the Ajax game both personally as a team. I had had my struggles with injury, had come through the experiences at Raith Rovers and Hibs. I hadn’t been bought for £6-7m. I had come from a small world and arrived at a huge club, and now I had the chance to play in the Champions League. It was a dream.”

From Raith Rovers to the Champions League in just over a year was indeed the stuff of dreams. But it was a dream that would never have come true if Agathe had listened to his doctor.

After leaving the French island territory of La Reunion as a teenager, Agathe joined the youth setup at Montpellier. He progressed to the first team with the club in Ligue 1, but he was plagued by a persistent knee problem.

It was eventually discovered that Agathe was suffering from a hereditary condition which left him without any cartilage in his knee. As a result, he was advised not to continue his career in professional football.

Discarded by Montpellier, Agathe could not see a future without football, so he sold all his possessions and tried to find a club in England. The closest he came was when Stockport County offered him a deal but then withdrew it after his medical flagged the knee problem.

Agent Willie McKay took him north of the border and he ended up sealing a deal at Raith Rovers, where it quickly became clear that he was a cut above the other players in Scotland’s second tier, despite playing in the unfamiliar position of centre-forward. However, Agathe valued the experience in Kirkcaldy.

“I needed that (year at Raith) before taking the next steps. My confidence was a bit low when I left Montpellier and struggled to find a club because of my knee. I needed a club like Raith Rovers, which was like a family where people look after you.”

Despite making a big impression at Raith, there were few offers at the end of the 1999-2000 season, but Hibs took a chance on him with a two-month deal with a view to a longer-term contract if things worked out. But things worked a little too well.

When Martin O’Neill went to see Hibs play Dundee, it was to look at Dundee goalkeeper Rab Douglas. But Agathe stole the show with two stunning goals, the second of which saw him run from the halfway line and evade four challenges before beating Douglas.

O’Neill was convinced that this was a player Celtic should sign, and he trusted the evidence of his eyes over what a doctor might tell him.

“Martin called me and asked if I could play despite my condition. I reminded him that he had seen me play. I said maybe I could not play constantly but I could play. He said he believed me and, despite what the medical found, he insisted on signing me.

“It was the same for John Hartson. Martin was pragmatic. He knew I could change games. Because I was still on a short-term deal at Hibs when Celtic came in for me, I cost almost nothing. It was not a big risk because the team already had people like Larsson and (Stilyan) Petrov, so the team was already good without me.”

It was a risk that goes down in history as one of the best deals the club has ever made. Agathe was so successful that Juventus wanted to take him to Italy after he had impressed in the two games against them in the Champions League.

“My agent called me and advised me to pack my bags because I was going to sign for Juventus. Martin O’Neill was on holiday in Barbados at the time and cut it short to come and persuade me to stay at Celtic. I wanted to go to Juventus, but he said there was no way. I was a bit disappointed but he offered me a new contract to show me how much he wanted me to stay.

“I also said to myself, ‘with your knee, can you really play for Juventus?’ I had a manager who trusted me, I knew my place in the team, I knew the fans. Celtic had given me my big opportunity.”

At Celtic, he was also very at ease with the players around him, bonding particularly with the Slovak playmaker Lubo Moravcik.

“We were so close that we had it put in our contracts that if we had to share hotel rooms when travelling, we would be together. We were close for many reasons and we are still close now. Lubo is down to earth. We both know where we come from. We have never seen ourselves as stars and we try to help people as much as we can. And money wasn’t the reason we played.”

While Moravcik dazzled with his mercurial skills in training every day, Agathe recognised the most important player was a striker.

“In football, the hardest thing is to score goals, so it was definitely Henrilk. He wasn’t gifted like Lubo, but he knew exactly when to run and to be where the ball was going to be. To score so many goals, he was unbelievable.

“This guy was a winner of the European Golden Boot. I remember when we went training at Barrowfield one morning and he was a bit moody. He said that we should do more work in front of our goal.

“He had already scored about 45 goals that season, so I questioned why. But I was asked to go on the right, and Alan Thompson was stuck on the left and we had to fire crosses in for Henrik. He lived to score and we realised that with him, we could win anything. At one point in any game, he might come up with a winning goal.”

While Moravcik was a delight to spend time with, and Larsson was a joy to play with, Neil Lennon could be a more challenging teammate.

“Neil Lennon was so demanding. It was annoying, and not only for me. There were fights in the dressing room between him and Bobo (Balde) and him and Stilyan. Neil wasn’t the kind to see you make a mistake and to come and encourage you. He was very critical and you would think, hang on, you make mistakes as well.

“At the same time, you realised he did this because he wanted you to give everything, But the way he did it, we didn’t like it. He was also a great man to play with because he wanted more and more in every game. So if the question is also, which player drove you to win games most, the answer would also be Neil Lennon.”

In his time at Celtic, Agathe picked up three Scottish Premier League winners medals, three Scottish Cups and one League Cup, as well as a runner-up medal in the 2003 UEFA Cup final. However, as much as the success on the pitch was appreciated, Agathe has fond memories of the time he spent with the squad.

“This team was like a bunch of kids in the dressing room. Every day, someone made a practical joke and this is one of the reasons I had never had so much fun playing football. We were very close to each other and often went for meals together and had nights out together. We saw more of each other than our families.

“One day, we went to the gym and had a challenge on the rowing machines. The final was between Bobo and Chris. And Bobo broke the chain, showing you how strong he was, and also a bit crazy.”

Agathe had many memorable moments in a Celtic shirt, with his trademark surges down the right wing, often ending in crosses that led to goals. One current player that would surely have benefitted from having Agathe playing on the wing would be Kyogo Furuhashi. Under Ange Postecoglou, Kyogo had a knack for getting in front of defenders to meet low crosses and direct the ball into the net. Agathe, more than most, recognises the value of this type of player.

“Kyogo is a player who is meant to play for Celtic. I like the runs he makes and his finishing. He was very good under Ange but I don’t know if Brendan Rodgers knows how to get the best out of him.”

Unlike Kyogo, Agathe wasn’t known for his goal scoring, but one goal that he did score stands out in particular - and it’s not the one that most fans would expect.

“People remember me for the Ajax game, but one game that always stands out in my memory is Aberdeen away in April 2001, when we won 1-0, because behind this game is a personal story.

“I was with a Scottish girl at the time and was really in love with her. The day or day before every game, the team would get together for a walk with Martin and when I went to join everyone, I got some very funny looks. I wondered what was going on.

“Then I saw that I was big news as my relationship with a ‘stripper’ was in the Sunday Mail. It killed me. This was the morning of the game. We went for our walk and everyone was talking about it. Martin came to ask if I was okay. Of course, I said I was okay but he knew I was lying.

“Inside I was destroyed. Martin told me that he needed me to play striker that afternoon as Chris Sutton was injured. I said that was fine and I scored the only goal of the game. When you see Martin’s reaction when I scored, it was unbelievable because he knew what I was going through.

“In this condition, to score the goal that won the game for a club like Celtic was special. I had to be mentally very strong to make sure I had an impact on the game.”

Not surprisingly, that particular relationship ended, but several years on, there was to be an unexpected twist in the story.

“After I broke up with this girlfriend, she ended up going out with Mark De Vries, who was at Hearts. We were playing Hearts at the time when Celtic had gone 75 games unbeaten at home.

“I knew she was at the game. The relationship was finished, but I was still a bit angry at her. We were losing the game 2-1 with 90 minutes on the clock, which meant the unbeaten run was almost at an end. I just thought, ‘I can’t accept this’. In the 93rd minute, there was a long ball from Thommo, Stan Varga flicked it on and I scored. It was the first goal I had scored with my left foot and you can see from my celebration what it meant.”

“But my job wasn’t to score goals. It was mainly to keep the back four of our opponents as deep as possible to allow us to dominate the game.”


Prior to his move to Celtic, Agathe had actually worn the blue of Rangers. But this was just for the cameras, literally. When legendary Hollywood actor Robert Duvall came to Scotland to star in the film ‘Shot at Glory’, some extras were necessary to ensure the football scenes looked true to life. As the fictional Kilnockie FC go on an unlikely journey to the Scottish Cup final, a meeting with a Rangers side featuring Agathe is their reward.

Bizarrely, Academic Award winner Duvall, Academy Award nominee Michael Keaton and Golden Globe winner Brian Cox share the screen with Ally McCoist, who plays a veteran former Celtic striker. McCoist's friendship with Raith Rovers chairman John McVeigh was Agathe’s way in.

“I was playing for Raith and John McVeigh was a friend of Ally McCoist. McVeigh told me they needed someone to play as striker. In the film, my role was as a Rangers player - before I played for Celtic, of course. I think the fans forgave me for this.

“It was quite an experience meeting Robert Duvall, such a huge star. It was very strange to be in this movie.”

After coaching stints at Durham City and Chester-le-Street United in England, Agathe decided on a complete change of scenery in 2022. He now has his own academy (Bepro Academy) in Bangkok to try and help young players transition to Europe to develop their careers.

While he enjoys living in Thailand, he has endured some frustration with the absence of the winning mentality that was such a feature of the Celtic side he played in.

“You have to adapt your approach constantly because they are not playing to win games. They are playing just to enjoy games. They are technically good, but they don’t have the winning mentality. Losing or winning doesn’t make a lot of difference to them. We are constantly working on the athletic side and giving the basics and then hope they develop from there.

“If I can do the same thing with other countries in Asia - we already have a partnership with an academy in Indonesia and one with Spain - we will try to expand this Bepro Academy.”

Despite a population that is around 14 times that of Scotland, Thai football has never come close to qualifying for a World Cup finals. Football is a hugely popular sport in the Southeast Asian country, but governance of the game is problematic.

“I know why it’s not working the way it should work. When you have a population of over 70 million people and you see the development of Bangkok and the money that is out there, it’s not right that football is at this level, but I understand why. You cannot mix politics and football.”
Spending five-and-half years as a Celtic player in Glasgow makes you a very high-profile individual, but Agathe enjoys anonymity in Bangkok.

“I was shocked to be recognised once by a Thai taxi driver. If I go to O’Shea’s Irish Bar (home of the Bangkok Celtic Supporters Club), yes, of course, I am recognised. Apart from that, one or two times, but it’s rare.”

It may be rare in Bangkok, but he is still remembered by the Celtic faithful in Glasgow, and even revered by members of a generation that did not see him in action.

“When I was in Glasgow a few years ago, I walked past a pub with about 10 guys outside. One of them recognised me and asked for a picture. I said ok. He then started to take down his trousers, so I wondered what he was doing. He had a tattoo on his calf with my picture. The guy was about 20 years old so couldn’t have seen me play. I was shocked. This was a very proud moment for me.”