Celtic have been blessed with some great goalkeepers in recent times.
Brendan Rodgers’ signing of Kasper Schmeichel has been huge for the Hoops – despite his form faltering at the minute, he has undoubtedly been a worthy contributor since his arrival last summer.
Schmeichel replaced Joe Hart between the posts at Celtic Park – for three years, Hart was an integral part of a dominant Hoops squad.
Artur Boruc’s performances for the Hoops were so impactful that he was nominated for the FIFPro World XI in 2008.
Fraser Forster is probably neck-and-neck with the ‘Holy Goalie’ as the greatest Celtic keeper of the century so far – and it has now been revealed that the Englishman tried to sign his own backup.
Fraser Forster tried to sign his own backup at Celtic
Lukasz Zaluska was Forster’s backup for his entire first spell in Glasgow. When he returned on loan in 2019, Craig Gordon and Scott Bain were his competition.
However, if he had his way, things could have been different.
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Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images
Jed Steer may not have played for England like Forster did, but he knew the Hoops hero from his time in Norwich in 2010.
Speaking to the official Aston Villa podcast, Steer admitted that Celtic was a concrete option for him – before a former Hoops midfielder convinced him to move to the Midlands.
Asked it was a long wait to move to Villa, Steer said: “It was, kind of. So I worked with Fraser Forster at Norwich and he was at Celtic at the time. I got on really well with Fraser and still do.
“He was trying to get into the Celtic goalkeeping coach a little bit as well, and maybe try and work something there. But yeah, it was, there were a couple of bits and pieces, but like nothing concrete. When Paul Lambert called me, I was like, ‘that’s it.’
“You think, ‘that’s it’. And, you know, once you hear of that, I was like ‘Villa, a club like this’. Premier League, the size of club it was.”
Steer was backup for almost his entire career at Villa, spending time out on loan and making 36 appearances in ten years.
Fraser Forster’s career
Across his career, Forster has made 485 appearances, and more of those were for Celtic than any other club.
He departed the Hoops for Southampton in 2014. There, he played with fellow ex-Celtic men Victor Wanyama, Virgil van Dijk and Stuart Armstrong.
Familiar with Forster from a 2013 Champions League tie, Antonio Conte brought him to Tottenham in 2023. Forster went on to work with Ange Postecoglou in North London.
Competing with Hart for a place, Forster also received six England caps between 2013 and 2016.