Celtic, as a club, have always been synonymous with having successful strikers in the modern era.
Henrik Larsson is clearly the greatest striker Celtic have had this century, but there have been many, many more.
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was a tall bustling Celtic forward, Gary Hooper was a great poacher and then Leigh Griffiths had a bit of everything.
Then there was Kyogo. There is no explanation needed to tell how good the Japanese striker was and why he is a Celtic hero.
However, it seems that Celtic once tried to sign a prolific striker from Leeds United back in 2010 as they looked to continue their trend of having dangerous front men.
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty ImagesJermaine Beckford says Celtic wanted to take him from Leeds United
Jermaine Beckford was a full Jamaican internationalist and also had a bit of a journeyman domestic career.
Playing out his days in England, Beckford was at the peak of his powers at Leeds when Celtic wanted to sign him as the retired striker now admits.
Beckford told Undr the Cosh, “Yeah, there’s always going to be clubs sniffing around, isn’t there? Any player that’s doing well in whichever league.
“So there were a couple, during my time at Leeds, I’ve had offers from Benfica, from Braga, from Celtic, from Newcastle.
“I’ve had really good offers from some amazing, amazing football clubs. It might have been my final season at Leeds.
“Newcastle came in again and they said, what’s Jermaine’s availability like for January?
“Because my contract’s up at the end of the season. I was chasing a new contract with the club. But for one reason or another, there were literally no talks being held.
“And it was, it was extremely frustrating.”
Jermaine Beckford’s deadly Leeds goalscoring record made him perfect for Celtic
Beckford spent four seasons at Leeds between 2006-2010.
In 152 appearances for the Elland Road club, Beckford scored 85 goals whilst winning the League One Player of the Year in 2008 and 2010.
However, after he left Leeds, that’s where Beckford’s career kind of went downhill. Failed spells at Everton, Leicester and Bolton were sandwiched between loan spells at Huddersfield and Preston until Beckford retired in 2019 at his sixth club in nine seasons.