As every Celtic fan knows by now, it’s James Forrest’s birthday today.
The Celtic legend turns 33 years old and is still doing it a the top level as his end-of-season form showed as he helped the Hoops win a league and Scottish Cup double.
Called upon by Brendan Rodgers as a substitute for the Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen, Forrest called on all of his experience and dragged Celtic towards the final with a superb second-half performance and goal.
Forrest was also pivotal in helping get the title over the line after bagging four goals and an assist after featuring in Celtic’s seven out of nine final league fixtures of last season.
James Forrest’s iconic Scotland moment
The national association congratulated the Celtic winger this morning and posted this footage of an iconic period in Forrest’s Scotland career.
This was one of two goals Forrest scored for Alex McLeish’s side in Scotland’s 4-0 annihilation of Albania. In the same international break, the Hoops winger scored a hattrick at Hampden as he put Israel to the sword in a 3-2 win that set the country on course for Euro 2020.
Those goals and the subsequent Scotland wins put the country into the Euro 2020 playoff final against Serbia and promotion to Group B.
Even back then Forrest proved that he was a big game player for Scotland and he will be disappointed not to have featured in this year’s Euros in Germany as Steve Clarke’s side meekly crashed out at the group stage once again.
However, even at 33, Brendan Rodgers has already ear-marked the legendary winger as being an important member of his Celtic squad for next season as the Hoops gaffer looks to not only defend his two pieces of silverware but to also make a mark in Europe.